ANONYMOUS MAYOR LOW. Group of 3 posters. 1903. Each approximately 30x20 inches, 76x51 cm. The Metropolitan Printing Co., New York. Conditions vary, generally B+. Seth Low had been a two-term mayor of Brooklyn and a president of Columbia College before he was elected as the first Governor of the five, unified boroughs of New York City in 1901. Politically he was progressive and as the president of Columbia he was known as "the great harmonizer." He was nominated by the newly found Citizens Union Party in an attempt to remove corrupt Tammny Hall politicians from the post. The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th edition, 2001) explains that while in office "He reformed the police and education departments, reorganized the city finances, compelled the electrification of the New York Central RR within the city, and attacked the continued existence of unsanitary tenements." Running for reelection he employed an exceptional Art Nouveau-style political campaign, in which the central figure holding aloft a tablet and the two pedestals flanking her remain constant through the eight images, but the words in tablets and the pedestals change as do the backgrounds to best represent the message in each poster. The messages and the images are indicative of Low's great progressive platform as well as being dismissive of Tammany Hall's deplorable performance. The constant, Lady Liberty-like, statuesque figure, is reminiscent of great Greek statues of Justice or Athena, standing guard outside ancient temples or contemporary courts. As attractive, and visually identifiable as this campaign was, it did little good for Seth Low, who was not reelected."
