McKinley-Roosevelt Tin "Dinner Pail" Candle Lantern, 1900

Late-nineteenth-century political parties rallied their supporters by holding torchlight parades. In the evening, marchers lit up the street carrying torches, lamps and lanterns. Many of these political lanterns glowed with the names of the candidates, slogans and patriotic symbols. By 1900, torchlight parades were becoming a thing of the past. Still, backers of Republican William McKinley would have used this lantern at some nighttime festivity.