Long before political campaigns were advertised through yard signs and television commercials, voters could show support for their preferred candidates through cotton cloths.

These cloths, called kerchiefs or bandannas depending on the campaign, were intended to support a particular candidate or spread concepts about a candidate’s political ideas or moral character. They often became symbolic of the election itself.

The American campaign kerchief came into being with the 1840 presidential bid of William Henry Harrison, who had been decried as an "old has-been," content to sit in a log cabin and drink cider.

Harrison’s campaign, marked by a time of an expanding electorate, seized upon the insult by making barrels a central motif on kerchiefs, portraying Harrison as a man of the people.

The 1880s marked a time of change for the campaign kerchief. They were referred to as bandannas because of their resemblance to tie-dyed bhandas from Southern India, and they were becoming much more prominent. Americans wore them as kerchiefs, scarves, cravats, or used them as handkerchiefs.

The bandanna's utility meant it could be used to decorate and show support in countless ways.

The Washington County Historical Society has in its collection two such campaign kerchiefs — one for Grover Cleveland’s 1888 presidential campaign, the other for the 1892 presidential bid of William Henry Harrison’s grandson Benjamin Harrison.

In the 1888 campaign, bandannas became a symbol of Cleveland’s Democratic party, and they were featured heavily in political cartoons and campaign songs.

Cleveland’s running mate, Allen Thurman, was rarely seen without a bright red bandanna, and at one campaign rally he is said to have pulled it out and announced that the bandanna would have been cheaper without the import tariff, turning the cloth into a symbol of consumer rights.

A critic is said to have complained in response that “you have nominated a pocket handkerchief!”

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The Cleveland bandanna owned by the Washington County Historical Society has imagery of brooms and a rooster. The crossed brooms symbolized the Democrat’s promise to “sweep clean the stables” and reform the government, while the rooster was the symbol of the Democratic party until it was replaced by the donkey at the end of the century.

Cleveland would lose the heavily contested 1888 election to Benjamin Harrison.

Campaign kerchiefs and banners were still used four years later for the political re-match between Cleveland and Harrison.

Harrison, perhaps taking a cue from his grandfather’s successful 1840 campaign, aimed to garner blue-collar support. Many bandannas for Harrison stressed the importance of home markets for home industries; the bandanna owned by the Washington County Historical Society for this election emphasizes protection and reciprocity, referring to the Republican fight for a protective tariff, which appealed to the common man.

But this time, Cleveland and the Democrats won.

While the campaign kerchief fell out of fashion, Americans still wear clothing to show their support of politicians.

You can see these pieces of American political history at the Miller House Museum at 135 W. Washington St. in Hagerstown. For information, visit the website at https://washcohistory.org/ or call 301-797-8782.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Kerchiefs were once popular election campaign kitsch