This is an old campaign handkerchief (a novel media, isn’t it?) for William Jennings Bryan and Arthur Sewall during the 1896 U.S. Presidential campaign season. Bryan and Sewall lost, of course (to William McKinley) in one of the most dramatic presidential elections of all time, but Bryan’s famous nomination-securing speech continues to loom larger than his loss of the election. That speech was rebroadcast on NPR in 1996 and a copy of it is available here. No mention of the William Jennings Bryan “Cross of Gold” speech is complete without taking a glance at this incredible campaign poster.
Full size resolution here, via Cornell University Library
