One of two scrapbooks in the archive compiled by Oliphant’s father of his son’s published drawings in Adelaide newspapers. Cartoons, occasional drawings, and some published reader comments are to be found in these unique volumes.

Oliphant's work during the Obama years contrasts the hopes raised by the election of our first African American president with the unchanging dysfunctions of our politics and the emergence of a potent white nationalism. Oliphant uses a symbol of American democracy (in this case, the Statue of Liberty) to show how easily its meaning can be subverted. Immigration, and the story of what is “American,” is a constant throughout his work.

The archive is replete with artifacts of Oliphant’s daily life as a political cartoonist, including this press credential pin to the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach in August 1972 where he was able to observe presidential hopefuls and their advisors in action, and sketch them in real time.

Richard Nixon (1913—1994) served as President from 1969 until he resigned from office on August 9, 1974, due to his role in the Watergate scandal. In what is thought to be his first sculpture, Oliphant renders Nixon as a three-quarter figure, his shoulders hunched as he raises his arms to make his characteristic double V for victory salute, very likely caricaturing the final AP photograph of Nixon as president on the top step of the presidential helicopter

In 1976, while campaigning for the Ford/Dole Republican ticket, a group of hecklers flashed Vice President Nelsen Rockefeller the middle finger, and he reciprocated in kind. This profane gesture was caught on camera and became known as the “Rockefeller Salute.”