today'sast stop on c-span cities to her in lincoln, nebraska, is the williams jennings bryan house, where the three-time president of 1902-1914.ived from >> the only republic, resting superior from the mountain of a terminal truth. all men are created equal, they are endowed with unalienable , and that government derived of just powers from the consent of the governed. why am jennings bryan is one of nebraska's most famous and prominent politicians and he is probably most famous for the fact that he was nominated three partyby the democratic but he lost the election all three times. he moved to lincoln in 1887. he was a lawyer in central illinois. he went into kansas to connect -- collect some debts and thought he would stop in lincoln to visit an old law school friend from the law school in chicago. he saw where lincoln and the state of nebraska were just booming, some of the fastest growing areas in the country at the time. he felt weak democratic parties a week democratic party. he started construction of this house in 1901. they fell in love with the hill the house is built on so they

the politics at the time and bertram goodhue included a figure that looks remarkably like williams jennings bryan. we have the artwork for the construction of the rotunda and floor for the building. the architect created a plan of what they proposed the floor would look like. they colored in the marble. they had their mosaicist pencil in the design she was proposing for the floor. she also created larger scale piece is that were sent to both -- i presume -- both the architect's office in new york and later commissioned in lincoln. the design for the rotunda of floor showed mother earth and the four elements of water, air, fire, and earth. and the design she created -- the designs she created were for the most part as she created them with the exception of mother earth. in the final design it is very different. mother earth is seated in a throne with her children around her. part of the design process, she not only created the small pieces to show the commission what she was thinking of doing, she created a full scale figure to show them, this is what the mosaic will look like on the floor of the

mckinley again ran against william jennings bryan. the issues were different, which in some ways is a testament to how much mckinley had succeeded. prosperity, he was by 1900 seen as the man who as i said earlier, brought us out of the -- the great depression of the 1890s. the new issue was americas place in the world and a word that was new to most americans, imperialism. bryan and the democrats and a number of what you might call "good government" republicans, liberal republicans, andrew carnegie, et cetera, basically opposed the idea of american empire. mckinley on the other hand, for a number of reasons, was -- thus far, he was a reluctant convert to the war in the first place. the question i have, we've been told, i believe, by the white house military aid, the single most important decision mckinley had to make as president after going to war was deciding whether to keep the philippines, a hugely important question, very controversial. the white house military aide said that in fact, it was ida's constant harping on all the good

and then william mckinley and william jennings bryan.hereas mckinley conducted what was then known as the front porch campaign. they're going to learn more about that in our next video. [video clip] >> ida mckinley played an important role. she would sit on the porch. she would never speak, but she was always there, always present. there is a perception in the public that she was an invalid and so the campaign managers wanted to dispel that, that ida would have the role of first lady, and there had been other first ladies who had not played an active role, but now it was 1896. communication is better. people are learning more about their president and their first lady, and now they are starting to have expectations that the first lady play a role. and so that was another thing that the campaign managers wanted to do. they wanted to bring it up to the public that this was not an invalid in a wheelchair. this was a woman who was active and wanted to play that role. in this case, we have some of the items that were created for the campaign

lewis gould: he beat william jennings bryan, what was it, 361 to -- i forget right offhand. but it was a pretty decisive victory. it was not as big as roosevelt overall in parker in 1904, but it was big enough for all practical purposes. bryan essentially carried the south and a few western states. and, taft, who is a better campaigner than anybody thought, did very well. susan swain: there are several parts of the story. as i was getting ready for it, i kept thinking, helen taft seemed to want this her whole life and things often didn't break very well for her. one of those was inauguration day, itself, which there was a blizzard in washington, d.c. lewis gould: yes. susan swain: and that made the ceremony go indoors as opposed to outside. we remember that with ronald reagan's first inaugural as well. we have a video next about the inauguration. and then we'll come back and talk more about that day.(begin video clip) ray henderson: march 4th, 1909, mrs. taft got to realize her dream that she became the first first lady to ride back from the capitol to the white house with h

and she had a hand in trying to get woodrow to patch up relations with william jennings bryan, who hadhree times been the democratic nominee was kind of the leader of the democratic party. and john -- i think he was very key in helping woodrow get the nomination. john milton cooper: well, well -- yes, it was -- susan swain: bryan, you mean? kristie miller: yes. john milton cooper: she saw -- she saw an opportunity. wilson had come from a different wing of the party. he'd said some things about bryan that some of his enemies had publicized to try to make trouble. and she saw a chance. ellen saw a chance to mend the fences there. and she brought them together and they hit it off very well. bryan and wilson had a good relationship, right down to some of the unfortunate stuff in world war i. so she's playing the same kind of role that she played in his academic career. very -- a very shrewd tactician, a very good facilitator. not out in front. not out in public. she didn't particularly like that role either, but that she was awfully shrewd, awfully shrewd person. susan swain: and it was th

morton,jay sterling william jennings bryan. we have some of the books he wrote. these are some of the books that are representative of our early collection efforts. some of the things we collected early on were books that were the property of famous nebraska is examples of both of those things. this one, for example, is "republic for empire," written by william jennings bryan. very delicate. that is his signature. this is part of his personal library. it was published in 1899. not ourk is one of our, earliest book, but it is one of our more valuable books, because of its provenance. this one, for example, is called "n nebraskans." these are nebraskans. part of the territory of nebraska before it became a state. this was owned by j sterling morton. --gave it, it along to him it belonged to him in 1872. this is from his library in nebraska city. this is one of our most valuable pieces. ofs book is a little boook early poetry by the brusca settlers. and some of the detail is what makes this book valuable -- by nebraska settlers. it has the gold on the outside and ha