Great Republican Harrison and Morton campaign ball, 1888
A 14-foot campaign ball for Harrison and Morton, photographed in 1888
An 1888 cabinet photograph of a 14-foot Republican campaign ball for Harrison and Morton, built by D. E. Brockett of Cumberland, Md., recalling 1840.
Techniques named on the archive record
BandwagonTransfer
Date
1888
Made by
D. E. Brockett, Cumberland, Md. (designer and builder); Wm. B. Holmes, New York (publisher)
Medium
Photograph
Country
United States
Regime
Cleveland Administration
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
Library of Congress , retrieved October 2, 2026
Source
Public domain by age (published 1888); LOC rights advisory: No known restrictions on publication Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.
A cabinet photograph of 1888 shows the Great Republican Harrison and Morton Campaign Ball, 14 feet across and 42 around, painted in bands and lettered with verse. The mount credits D. E. Brockett of Cumberland, Maryland, as builder and ties the ball to the Harrison campaign of 1840.
The object
This record is a photograph of a campaign object rather than a print. The archive describes a cabinet photograph of a huge ball, painted in bands and lettered with verses, held by men with poles. The printed mount gives its size, "Circumference, 42 feet. Diameter, 14 feet.", and its makers: D. E. Brockett of Cumberland, Maryland, "designer and builder," and Wm. B. Holmes of 775 Broadway, New York, "PUBLISHER."
[Visible on the ball:] [...] Cleveland, You must face defeat, / [...] up Your old Bandanna; / You cannot beat Our Candidate / Who hails from INDIANA. [...]
[Printed on the mount:] GREAT REPUBLICAN HARRISON AND MORTON CAMPAIGN BALL, 1888.
"Old Allegany in 1840 / Started the ball for Harrison; / In '88 as they did then, / We roll it on for Gallant Ben. / Roll along, Roll away," / Keep the ball in motion; / The spirit of our men is up / From Rocky Hills to Ocean."
The archive reads two techniques in the ball. A rolling ball that has to be kept moving presents a campaign as momentum, which is the bandwagon appeal in physical form: "Keep the ball in motion." The verse on the mount adds transfer. "Old Allegany in 1840 / Started the ball for Harrison," it says, and "In '88 as they did then, / We roll it on for Gallant Ben." The 1888 candidate is tied to the 1840 one by name and by the image of one ball still rolling.
The ball's own lines are more direct. What the camera caught of them tells Cleveland he "must face defeat" and adds, "You cannot beat Our Candidate / Who hails from INDIANA." There is no tariff figure or policy claim in what is legible. The appeal is to winning, to place, and to a name.
FRAME object record, Great Republican Harrison and Morton campaign ball, 1888. D. E. Brockett, Cumberland, Md. (designer and builder); Wm. B. Holmes, New York (publisher).
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, catalog record, retrieved by the archive 2 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain by age (published 1888); LOC: "No known restrictions on publication."
