Signed by powerful Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed, this visitor’s gallery pass made a valuable keepsake. Engraved passes began to appear in the 1890s, but unlike in later years, when the design was rigorously standardized, there is variation in the scenes depicted in the background. Here, the Capitol and the grounds are shown, with the detail of many carriages and pedestrians crossing the foreground, which is an image similar to those that appeared in the illustrated press. Other examples issued later in the same year simplified the formula, setting the building in a vague, brushy space.
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