A Note on My Harding Research

The information I posted during 2020 mostly covered Warren Harding's front-porch campaign from his home on Mt. Vernon Avenue in Marion, Ohio. The campaign officially started on July 31, 1920, and ended on September 25. The plan was to post daily on events that occurred exactly 100 years ago that day, but I shared other information as well. You'll have to read bottom-to-top if you want to follow the campaign from Day 1.

I used the open web for some of my research but also information accessible by using my library card or my subscription to www.newspapers.com. The most useful resource was the Marion Star, which was owned by the Hardings at the time of the campaign. I also browsed online copies of other newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Star, and the Dayton Daily News, which, in 1920, was owned by Harding's Democratic opponent, Governor James M. Cox. I also posted information from other newspapers that covered Harding's trips away from Marion during the campaign.

Another great resource I used was Dale E. Cottrill's The Conciliator, a 1969 biography of the president that expanded an earlier bibliography of Harding's speeches. An online version is available at the Internet Archive, but I used a hard copy borrowed from the State Library of Ohio.

Readers should not construe anything posted here as a political statement on my part. I just like Harding as a historical topic.

7/02/2020

Friday, July 2, 1920

Senator Harding informs the press that he will leave for Marion tomorrow but that he does not want a brass band or special train to mark the occasion. As reported in the New York Times, "The trip will take him through Western Maryland and Pennsylvania and part of Ohio. The route through Maryland will be along the old National Turnpike through Frederick and across the Blue Ridge Mountains via Hagerstown to Cumberland. From the last named place, the party will travel by way of Uniontown, Pa.; Columbus, Ohio, and then to Marion."


In Marion, local merchants are putting up decorations, and in one store, a bicycle is placed in a window with a sign that reads "Warren G. Harding owned and rode this wheel twenty years ago." Press organizations are arranging to have access to leased wires for their correspondents and are sending telegraph operators to town to prepare for the campaign.

A photo of the bicycle will be used in a promotional poster "Bicycles Build Presidential Boys," alongside a photo of Calvin Coolidge Jr. on his bike.


Sources:
  • "Active Part Taken in Arrangements." Marion Star. 2 July 1920.
  • "Harding Starts for Marion Today." New York Times. 3 July 1920.
  • "Harding to Slip Away Quietly for His Home in Ohio." Washington Star. 2 July 1920.
  • "Senator Harding Will Arrive Here Monday." Marion Star. 2 July 1920.
Images:
  • "Bicycles Build Presidential Boys." Smithsonian Institution.
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