Monthly Archives: August 2014

Currently on Display – Winning Directions: The Art of Direct Mail for Political Campaigns 1997-2012

In honor of the mid-term elections, AU Special Collections is highlighting one of its more recent acquisitions, The Anthony J. Fazio Direct Mail Archive, with an exhibit on the third floor of Bender Library.

Winning Directions is an award winning Democratic direct mail firm which was started in 1989 by Anthony J. Fazio. It offers a variety of services including campaign planning, fundraising, polling, voter database design, and a photo studio. Winning Directions works for individual campaigns as well as PACs and labor unions. The exhibit features examples of attack ads, candidate bios and endorsements, and hot topic pieces and will be on display through the end of the fall semester.

Currently on Display: “Tell it to George”: Student Activism @ AU 1968-1998

American University has a long record of political activism. Students coalesced over a variety of issues such as abortion, apartheid, campus governance, the environment, and the Vietnam War. Student support ranged from organizing events and fundraisers on campus to participating in national protests and marches in DC. A new exhibit on display on the first floor of Bender Library features photographs and an article from AU’s Student Newspaper, The Eagle, documenting the nature and purpose of several of the larger protests from the late 1960s to the early 2000s. The exhibit will be on display through the end of the fall semester.

Leaves of Wesley Heights

W.C. and A.N. Miller started building in Wesley Heights in the mid-1920s. The development included a community center and swimming pool. The Millers began publishing a community newsletter, The Leaves of Wesley Heights, in 1925. American University Special Collections holds the company’s “personal” copies of the publication. Our run is incomplete and consists of issues from 1928 through 2006. The Leaves of Wesley Heights covered community groups and events including graduations, school activities and weddings. Some of the regular features were tips about gardening, a calendar of events, the “house of the month”, and news from the company.