HURON — For more than 50 years, Huron resident Dennis Olson has been collecting political campaign memorabilia.

He has now put together an extensive collection, mostly political campaign buttons, that extends back to the 1860 presidential campaign of Abraham Lincoln, who defeated John Breckinridge.

“You know,” Olson said with a bright light in his eye, “there is just so much history in these things.”

Olson said that his aunt was the one who got him started when he was young. “She was a member of the Republican National Committee and gave me my first button,” he said.

Olson will enter the national political scene himself this year, as he was elected to the position of S.D. Democratic Committeeman at the state Democrat’s virtual convention this spring. He will begin a four-year term leading the party and will attend at least two national meetings per year as the state’s lone delegate.

“Each state gets one person,” Olson explained. “I am really looking forward to serving in this capacity. It is such a huge honor.”

He noted that the Democratic National Convention is set for August 17-20. It was to take place in Milwaukee, Wisc., although the convention will be conducted remotely from Delaware, to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections. The Republican National Convention will take place a week later, and will take place in Charlotte, N.C., and  Jacksonville, Fla.

“The decision was made to do this year’s convention virtually,” Olson said. “It’s being responsible.”

Olson said he has gone to the national convention before, and he made new memorabilia trading friends while he was there.

“I did a lot of trading,” he said. “There are things that I have duplicates of and someone is almost always willing to trade for something they don’t have.”

Growing up in Iowa, Olson’s parents helped him add to his collection early on. “They went to the caucuses every year and grabbed buttons and campaign materials for me.” He said that he has dozens of small binders that are filled with buttons and pamphlets, as well as tubs of other items. One room in his home is dedicated to jewels of his collection. On this day, he has chosen to bring four shallow, square containers, including election material from Lincoln’s campaign, and a button of his opponent.

What is interesting, is that the button is made of carved ivory, with a small black and white photo, which is shielded within a glass cover. The button is noticeable in its detail. A different campaign button is shaped like a bee and is long and narrow on first examination, but a tiny lever at the bottom activates two wings, which pop out and contain minuscule photos of William McKinley and his running mate Garret Hobart from the 1896 presidential election. It is called “The Gold Bee” pin.

“Here is one of my favorite things,” Olson said with excitement. “It’s a ceramic John F. Kennedy and his famous armchair. And if you look carefully, the Kennedy portion comes off and is a salt shaker and the chair is a pepper shaker.”

Another one of his favorite things is a Florida voting booth from the 2000 election. “I saw it on eBay and it was pretty cheap so I bought it. When I got it and set it up, there were still the little paper ‘chads’ that affected that election between George Bush and Al Gore inside the booth!”

While he is a registered Democrat, Olson said that his collection has no party limit. “I have everything - both parties in races from state and local to the national elections,” he said. “Anything collectible, I am interested in adding it to the collection.”

He recently made a gift of one of the other prized pieces in his collection, to a fellow local Democrat, who he said was going through a bit of a difficult time.

“I have several of these and they are kind of rare,” he said, displaying a tie clip that shows PT-109, the Navy ship on which Kennedy served in World War II. “The person I gave it to really liked it. It’s nice to see it being enjoyed.”

As the internet and social media continue to control more of each candidate's vision, finding new election memorabilia is becoming harder to find. “No, there is not much new coming out,” Olson agreed. “Most of what takes place now is trading among collectors.”

But he still keeps his eyes open for something different that he can add to his collection.