Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed was a larger-than-life figure on the political stage, famous for his iron-fisted rule of the House and his barbed insults of opponents. He was rarely depicted as a family man. This 1896 Philadelphia Press newspaper supplement, is an exception. Reed appears with his wife, Susan Merrill Reed in a rosy treatment of “Czar Reed,” complete with twining flowers and an engraving of the couple’s home.
