Bryan & Stevenson

Pinback button promoting William Jennings Bryan for president and Adlai Stevenson for president, 1900. The Whitehead & Hoag Co., Newark, New Jersey.

"Silver Democrats" Bryan and Stevenson were the Democratic nominees at the turn of the last century, and many Bryan-Stevenson badges, such as this one, are suitably silver-hued. Bryan, who had built a political career as an exponent of Free Silver, was the Party's choice for the second time. The convention chose Stevenson, vice-president under Grover Cleveland and an official in McKinley's administration, to conciliate conservatives worried that Bryan was too left-leaning. Stevenson's grandson and namesake was a governor of Illinois and twice an unsuccessful candidate for president in the 1950s.

We offer an original button from the 1900 campaign picturing Bryan and Stevenson.