Reed, Thomas B. (Thomas Brackett), 1839-1902

He won’t budge

Benjamin Harrison stands on a stack of books labeled “Respectable Administration Record, Church and Sunday School Record, War Record, Good Old Republican Party Record, [and] Family Record.” In the background, on the left is William McKinley building “McKinley’s Presidential Fences,” and on the right is Thomas B. Reed holding boards labeled “Reed’s Presidential Fences.” Caption: Harrison–What! – I’ve retired as a candidate? – Not much!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-10-30

The “press view” at the candidate show

Presidential candidates are on display in a gallery for the press. Among the candidates are Jerry Simpson, William A. Peffer, Robert E. Pattison, David B. Hill, James E. Campbell, William C. Whitney, William E. Russell, Adlai E. Stevenson, Levi P. Morton, Robert T. Lincoln, William B. Allison, Thomas B. Reed, William McKinley, and Benjamin Harrison who is standing next to a stack of books and a sign that states, “My Friends Say I Am Not A Candidate.” Down the center of the gallery are several newspaper editors, some with magnifying glasses and telescopes. Among them are Joseph Pulitzer, Charles A. Dana, Whitelaw Reid, Henry Watterson, Joseph R. Hawley, Murat Halstead, and Evan P. Howell, and an unidentified reporter for the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-11-20

Not this Thanksgiving

Uncle Sam stands on the sidewalk with a large turkey labeled “Business Revival” in a basket labeled “From Cleveland & Co.” On the right are three vendors offering scrawny turkeys for sale: from left, “Tom Reed – Presidential Poultry – Anything and Everything – If you don’t see what you want, ask for it”; “Cheap Ben – The Old Reliable Dealer, formerly Purveyor to Uncle Sam. No Reasonable Offer Refused”; and “The Home Market – McKinley – Protective Poulterer. High Tariff Turkeys, Calamity Chickens, No Cheap Goods.” Caption: Uncle Sam–Well, gentlemen, I’ve already got my turkey for this year; but I may do some shopping with you next season!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-11-27

The Republican Christmas tree

A large Christmas tree is decorated with ornaments labeled with political offices and presidential appointments. Thomas Collier Platt and Matthew S. Quay, who is dressed as a woman, are standing in front of the tree. In queues on both sides are diminutive figures anxiously awaiting their presents, including from right to left, Jerry Simpson, Joseph B. Foraker, William E. Chandler, William McKinley, Whitelaw Reid, Thomas B. Reed, Levi P. Morton, Benjamin Harrison, William B. Allison, George F. Hoar, John Sherman, Chauncey M. Depew, and Robert T. Lincoln. Caption: The two big bosses have full charge of it, and the most obedient boys will come in for the best gifts.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-12-25

Speaker Reed’s new year’s vision

Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed is asleep at his desk, dreaming that Thomas Collier Platt and Matthew S. Quay, as angels, are coming to offer him the “Presidential Nomination 1896.” Caption: It beats Jacob’s ladder out of sight.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-01

“Give it another twist, Grover – we’re all with you!”

President Grover Cleveland, wearing military uniform, gives a twist to the British Lion’s tail as it stands on a small island labeled “Great Britain” just off the coast of the “United States” where Cleveland and his backers are standing. Among Cleveland’s backers are Thomas B. Reed, Charles A. Dana doing a headstand on the “N.Y. Sun,” George F. Hoar holding a rifle, William E. Chandler wearing a grenadier’s bearskin hat and holding a sword, Henry C. Lodge with a sword, John T. Morgan, and Charles A. Boutelle also wearing a bearskin hat.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-08

The “ki-yis” can’t rattle him

President Cleveland drives a stagecoach carrying a female passenger labeled “National Credit” and a trunk labeled “Gold Reserve.” The horse team is labeled “Firmness” and “Common Sense.” A pack of dogs is trying to rattle the horses. The dogs are identified as “Dana, Pulitzer, Frye, Bland, Sickles, Peffer, Reed, Boutelle, Wolcott, Pugh, Stewart, Jones, Morgan, Teller, [and] Lodge.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-03-13

Not this time!

President Cleveland is at the helm of the “Ship of State,” its sails labeled “Honest Pensions, Wilson Tariff Bill, Sound Financial Policy, Adherence to the Traditional Policy of Non-Interference,” [and] Economic Government,” as it sails past the “Rocks of Disaster” upon which are the remains of a shipwreck labeled “Sherman Silver Law, McKinley Bill, Fraudulent Pensions, [and] Jingoism,” and a group of marooned sailors labeled “McKinley, Lodge, Tom Reed, [and] Quay.” Also present are Benjamin Harrison, Whitelaw Reid, George F. Hoar, and William E. Chandler. Caption: The political wreckers see their hopes again indefinitely postponed.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-03-06

The same old power behind the throne

Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed holds a gavel and “Tariff Legislation.” While he is seated at the Speaker’s desk, he is mindful of a large man wearing a business suit, labeled “Protectionist,” sitting behind him.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1896-01-22

The two old parties have no use for her

An old woman with a broom labeled “Spoils System” evicts from the “Democratic Home” a young woman labeled “Civil Service Reform” carrying a bag labeled “Civil Service Laws.” On the street are Benjamin Harrison, Whitelaw Reid, and Thomas B. Reed, laughing. In the background, on the left, is the “Republican Home” with an old woman labeled “G.O.P.” looking out the window. A large padlock labeled “Spoils System” bars the gate. On the right is the “Mugwump Home” where a woman is standing with open arms to welcome the young woman labeled “Civil Service Reform.” Caption: But she will always find a hearty welcome and kind treatment at the old reliable independent home.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-06-20

Both satisfied

A female figure labeled “Rep. Party” tries to choose from among three suitors labeled “McKinley, Reed, [and] Harrison.” Another female figure labeled “Dem. Party” is walking in the background with her beau, William Jennings Bryan. Caption: Republican Party–Isn’t it lovely to have so many eligible young men to choose from? / Democratic Party–Well, I’m satisfied with my present escort, – and I don’t worry about the future.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-09-18

Waiting for the good times to blow over

A large female figure holds a cornucopia labeled “Prosperity 1895,” floating toward rays of light that illuminate industrial facilities. She hovers above a group of men gathered around a platform with a banner that states, “Protection Issue and Victory in 1896.” Several of the men are shaking their fists at her. Among those identified by name and unidentified are “Hoar, Elkins, Tom Reed, Lodge, [and] Hale,” and William B. Allison, possibly Thomas C. Carter, John Sherman, Joseph B. Foraker, William McKinley, Benjamin Harrison, William E. Chandler, Whitelaw Reid labeled “Tribune of N.Y.,” Charles A. Boutelle, and Matthew S. Quay.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-10-09

The mystery explained

Speaker of the House, Thomas B. Reed, is a watchdog asleep at his desk on papers labeled “Dingley Tariff Section 22” while a scoundrel labeled “Railroad Lobby” inserts an amendment. Caption: Speaker Reed says he doesn’t know how the discriminating duty “slipped in.” This is how.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-09-22

Lohengrin Reed is wanted in New York

Thomas B. Reed, in the role of “Lohengrin,” arrives to rescue “Elsa” as the “Republican Party of New York,” with Thomas Collier Platt in the role of “Telramund” and Lemuel E. Quigg in the role of “Ortrud,” his wife. They are all at the gate of a castle and a swan labeled “Aspiration” is in a moat at far left. Caption: “The Republican Elsa would gladly be rescued from her oppressors.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-12-15

A troublesome infant – he grows faster than his god-fathers expected

A crying infant labeled “Dingley Tariff” wears clothing labeled “Deficit from July 1st to Nov. 15th $44,411,144,” and holds a tiny pair of pants labeled “Dingley Tariff.” A man, possibly Nelson Dingley, holds a bolt of cloth labeled “New ‘Protective’ Measures” and a large pair of scissors and is standing next to the infant’s high chair.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-12-15

The Republican schoolma’am and her pupils

An elderly woman sits in a chair on a platform, instructing her students in lessons that have probably been taken from the “Republican Campaign Text Book” sitting on a table on the right, or from the “Republican Press” at her feet. Reciting their lessons are pupils identified as “Boutelle, Reid, Reed, Foraker, Harrison, Hoar, Allison, Lodge, McKinley, Sherman,” and “Stewart,” who is standing on a stool and wearing a dunce cap labeled “Silver Dunce.” Caption: The Schoolma’am–Who were responsible for all the cyclones, dry spells, frosts, floods, landslides, chills-and-fever, mosquitos and everything else that plagued the country? / Chorus of Scholars–The Democrats! / The Schoolma’am–To whom does the country owe its present good crops, fine weather, health, wealth and general prosperity? / Chorus of Scholars–The Republicans!! / The Schoolma’am–Correct! – all go to the head!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1895-08-28

Coroner Harrison is a little too previous

Uncle Sam reclines in a chair with his feet resting on a foot stool. On a table next to him are medications labeled “Tariff Reform Tonic” and “Repeal of Sherman Silver Law Elixir.” Benjamin Harrison stands at center holding a large “Certificate of Death – Died of Democratic Rule.” He is attended by several men with their mourning hats, including Thomas Collier Platt, Charles A. Boutelle, Whitelaw Reid, George F. Hoar, and Thomas B. Reed. They have come to pay their last respects.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-09-06

A hint from the world’s fair – why not have a “bureau of public comfort” in every large city?

At center is a place for Republicans to go to commiserate while awaiting the next election. Such stalwart Republicans as George F. Edmunds, John Sherman, William M. Evarts, George F. Hoar, and Thomas B. Reed wait there. Surrounding vignettes show a prominent citizen being escorted by two “Bureau of Public Comfort” guards who keep the press at bay, a sewing station for women’s clothing after a round of bargain shopping, a room where anarchists can blow off some steam “without disturbing anybody,” an educational facility to help orient newcomers to the ways of the city, and a hypnotist who attempts to convince servants to work in the country. Caption: Some of the useful purposes it might serve.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-10-25

The return from exile

William McKinley, as Napoleon I, rides a white horse labeled “Ohio” and carries a sword labeled “McKinley.” He is on the banks of a river, leading an army that includes Benjamin Harrison, Thomas B. Reed, John Sherman, William E. Chandler, William M. Stewart, Matthew S. Quay, Chauncey M. Depew, George F. Hoar, and Whitelaw Reid. On the other side of the river is the U.S. Capitol with the date “1896” above it. Caption: They do not see the Waterloo before them.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-12-13

McKinley has almost all the chips; – but the game is young, yet

Thomas B. Reed, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley are playing poker at the “Presidential Aspirants’ Poker Club.” Reed is wearing a crown and royal robe, Harrison is wearing his iconic top hat, and McKinley is dressed like Napoleon I and has a stack of red, white, and blue chips in front of him.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1894-01-03