Collection on the Republican National Convention of 1892

Collection

Identifier: M/A 0262

Staff Only

Description of Contents

This collection consists of three boxes of correspondence, clippings, and ephemera regarding the Republican National Convention of 1892. The first and second boxes contain correspondence between members of the press and the Convention committee regarding attendance and accomodations. The correspondence is organized by state. Of particular interest are the letterheads of various newspapers, both large and small, from the Baltimore Sun to the Sioux City Times.

The third box contains directories and programs from the event, ephemera including tickets and delegate ribbons from the convention hall, and newspaper clippings remembering the convention. Also in the third box are a facsimile of the front page of the Convention edition of the Minneapolis Tribune, June 7, 1892, an 1892 Cosmopolitan article describing the Convention, and "Convention City - The Republicans in Minneapolis, 1892", a comprehensive article on the planning and execution of the convention from the journal Minnesota History, June 1956.

Dates

Majority of material found within 1891 - 1892
1891 - 1956

Creator

Republican National Convention (10th: 1892 : Minneapolis, Minn.) (Organization)

Access Restrictions

The collection is available for use in Special Collections during the department's open hours.

History

The Republican National Convention of 1892, which took place from June 7 to June 10, was the first national political convention to take place west of the Mississippi. Held at the Industrial Exposition Building, in Minneapolis, the result of the convention was the nomination of the Benjamin Harrison for re-election as President and Whitelaw Reid of New York for Vice President. Harrison lost his bid for re-election and Grover Cleveland succeeded him as President.

The Convention's arrival in Minneapolis was contingent on a suitably sized hall and the availablity of accomodations for delegates and members of the press. The Industrial Exposition Building, built in response to Saint Paul's construction of the state fairgrounds, had seven and half acres of floor space and a total seating capacity of between eleven and fifteen thousand. With construction complete in 1887, the city made a bid for the 1888 Republican Convention, but lost to Chicago. In bidding for the 1892 Convention, the convention committee convinced Chicago not to enter a bid and got Western Union to install more telegraph wires in Minneapolis to support press coverage. The committee's bid was accepted by the Republican national committee on November 23, 1891, and planning went into high gear. The convention drew in about thirty-five thousand people, which was well below the estimated hundred thousand the committee had expected, but in the process of planning for the convention, Minneapolis built up city infrastructure and showed its metropolitan character to the country.

The bulk of this collection consists of correspondence regarding press accomodations. The citizen's executive committee, led by George A. Brackett, was responsible for the logistics of housing, feeding, and transporting people from all over the country, and the collection reflects the complexity and immensity of this task. Arrangements specifically for the press were handled by a separate committee, chaired by Gilbert A. Pierce of the Minneapolis Tribune. Many members of the press were housed at the newly built New York Life Insurance Building, which was converted to a hotel just for the event, and reconverted to offices afterwards. Others stayed in hotels in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and some lodged in boarding houses or private homes.