ONCORD, N.H. - There are, in the history of New Hampshire primaries, objects that come to symbolize entire candidacies and turning points of political seasons.
A bus. A microphone. Ed Muskie's (alleged) tears.
Now, those objects are being collected for posterity, at the Library and Archive of New Hampshire's Political Tradition - ''The Political Library'' in local shorthand.
Let's make one thing clear. No one collected Ed Muskie's tears (or the melting snow on his face, or whatever it was) that people said was the beginning of the end of his 1972 presidential bid. But someone did write a thesis about them. And it's in here.
So are a package of cigarettes with Michael Dukakis's face on them, hundreds of lawn signs, scores of position papers, a set of George and Barbara Bush paper dolls (it's, uh, briefs, in case you're wondering), hundreds of political buttons (''Nixon's the One!''), and a coffee cup replete with crud that Walter Mondale failed to wash out after he drank from it.
This is the stuff of presidential primaries.
When all the TV satellite trucks cleared out of Manchester in February, the people behind the political library began scouring for new materials. They have been doing this for three years, but this was the first first-in-the-nation primary to occur in the library's short life.
Although the political library - housed in a couple of rooms in the New Hampshire State Library - was visited by plenty of reporters this season, it is still too out of the way to attract much foot traffic from the general public.
Organizers hope that will soon change. In addition to seeking the best in bumper stickers, they're on the hunt for more accessible space and are considering expanding the library's reach through lecture series, and, perhaps, a New Hampshire political Hall of Fame.
After all, besides a great location, it has all the elements to make it a big hit in a state filled with political junkies.
Soon they should be able to see the microphone that some say symbolized Ronald Reagan's victory here in 1980. At a debate in Nashua, Reagan insisted that all Republican contenders be allowed to debate.
When the moderator ordered the microphone shut off, Reagan snapped, ''I paid for this microphone, Mr. Green!'' And, despite the fact that the moderator's name was Jon Breen (not Green), Reagan's performance that night, some say, won him the primary.
Right now the microphone is on the other coast, in the Reagan Library, but will find its final resting place in New Hampshire's archive.
And the bus? None other than John McCain's ''Straight Talk Express,'' which the candidate rode to his 2000 New Hampshire primary win. The library doesn't have it yet, but wants it bad.
''The first thing I want is that bus,'' said former New Hampshire governor Hugh Gregg, who cooked up the idea of the library in 1996.
So far, McCain's people have not been asked to hand over the ''Straight Talk.'' But you can bet they will be.
When Gregg - father of US Senator Judd Gregg and patriarch of the New Hampshire Republican Party - had the idea to create a library dedicated to the primary, he knew what had to be done.
Gregg got on the phone. He got in the car. He drove around the state, rifling through barns, sorting through stuff on dining room tables.
''Some people would give us stuff that really isn't worth much but we're delighted to get it, so we take good care of it,'' said Gregg, who this month stepped aside as chairman of the board, handing the task to Franklin Pierce College President George Hagerty.
New Hampshire, perhaps, is the only state where such a library would take hold. This may be the most political of states; politics is as much a part of the fabric of life here as are maple sugaring season and black flies. New Hampshire holds more elections - for local, state, and federal office - than any other state in the union.
New Hampshire is awash in political memorabilia. Since 1952, White House aspirants have swallowed rivers of coffee, given out mountains of political kitsch, and signed millions of autographs from Salem to Berlin.
And saving stuff is Yankee tradition. So it is hard to find a home of a certain vintage here that does not have in it somewhere - the barn, an overstuffed bureau drawer, an attic room - some object connected to the New Hampshire presidential primary. Lawn signs. Buttons. A doggie chew-toy in the shape of George Bush the Elder.
''I think it was a wonderful idea to do it because I'm a believer that the New Hampshire primary is a special moment in the democratic process,'' said Dayton Duncan, author of ''Grassroots: One Year in the Life of the New Hampshire Presidential Primary.''
''And it's important for us to try to communicate ... the reasons why there is a New Hampshire primary and what its worth is,'' Duncan said. ''When I was doing my book on the New Hampshire primary there wasn't a library like that to go to.''
Library backers want to cement its place as the single clearinghouse for primary-related information for the media, scholars, and political scientists.
The Library and Archive, while still very much in its infancy, has grown exponentially since Gregg first made his rummaging forays. It now boasts some 150 volumes, 60 document collections, and boxes upon boxes of what archivists call ''ephemera.''
Here are a pair of castanets given out by the campaign of that most rhythm-impaired president - Richard Nixon. ''Click with Dick!'' is emblazoned across them. No joke.
And, though it might seem improbable now, Reagan's campaign handed out frilly lace garters adorned with plastic hearts and the motto: ''Women (heart) Reagan.''
Dying to know about independent John Anderson's 1980 presidential campaign? You'll find no fewer than 300 Anderson-related items in these stacks.
And for those political junkies who may someday find it imperative to watch ''The Man From Hope,'' the schmaltzy Bill Clinton campaign video that was the talk of the 1992 Democratic National Convention, it's right here.
''There's nobody else who can do it better than we can,'' Gregg said. ''We have the advantage of having all these people up here. They've all been through here. ... [New Hampshire] people worked for those candidates and there are people who know them by their first names, and they've been in their houses and they've kept all this personal memorabilia.''
While the library collects material from any statewide election, it has at its core - and written directly into its mission statement - the preservation of New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.
Senator Gregg recently helped secure $1.4 million in federal funds for the library, said state librarian and political library director Michael York.
And there are barns, steamer trunks, attics, and town historical societies all over New Hampshire that are as yet untapped for political relics.
''I know all kinds of people who have stuff that they haven't turned over yet,'' said Hugh Gregg. ''But they will.''
