“When we told people we were doing this, people said, ‘Where? Why?’ ” said Katie Ellis, a 28-year-old history buff who grew up in Sanbornton, N.H.

Two roommates from Dartmouth College spent nearly four days one summer driving across the country, with the gallery as their destination. (One visiting couple hailed from Wasilla, Alaska, but it was not the Palins.) One man from Argentina has been at least three times. Still, it has received visitors from Nova Scotia, Germany, and Australia. It has a Twitter feed with just 191 followers.

The world’s largest ball of twine is located 90 miles away, and it gets as many visitors in an average week as “They Also Ran” gets in a good year. It is one thing to champion underdogs - but the defeated? The gallery gets just a few hundred visitors annually. The evidence, as measured by foot and web traffic, suggests few people actually share Norton’s concern for the White House wannabes. And a lot of them probably worked harder than the vice presidents.” “This is a gentle reminder that these fellas are part of our history. The president gets his due, and these guys were just left by the wayside,” said Roberta Ryan, a city councilor. “These guys deserve some recognition for having the guts to run for president. The frame for Gerald Ford, who was known for his clumsiness, used to routinely fall off the wall at the gallery (it has since been moved, and secured). Bush, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and Jimmy Carter. Romney - his image downloaded from the Internet - graced a spot near other recent losers: John McCain, John Kerry, Al Gore, Bob Dole, George H.W. 22, a moment captured by a news crew that drove down from a local TV station in Nebraska. “Willard Mitt Romney, to the wall,” declared Shearer, with a corsage pinned to her blouse, as she hung Romney’s portrait on Jan. Now the row of portraits ends with the homage to Romney, the 60th honoree. The exhibit starts with Thomas Jefferson, who lost the nation’s third presidential race in 1796 (George Washington ran virtually unopposed in the nation’s first two presidential elections).

A local banker established the gallery in 1965 after being inspired by the story of Horace Greeley, one of the few presidential candidates - winning or losing - to ever set foot in Norton.

They also ran by irving stone