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.

7/27/2020

Tuesday, July 27, 1920

Another low-key day, at least in Marion. Harding sends "a word of Godspeed and good wishes" in a wireless telegram to the American athletes sailing to the Olympic Games in Belgium. As for Harding's own exercise routine, the "press of work and inaccessibility of golf courses have led him to consider abandoning his frequent trips to the links."

Harding meets with advisors to discuss a national advertising campaign. According to the Washington Star, "Twelve mystic words, decided up during the conference, which are being kept a strict secret until they are blazoned across the country on billboards and electric signs, are to be the campaign slogan, to be carried with Harding's picture in all advertising."

Details of the first three campaign events are confirmed: the Richland County Harding and Coolidge Club will come to Marion on Saturday, Wayne County Republicans next Wednesday, August 4, and a class in school administration from Ohio State on the 5th.

In Northampton, Massachusetts, Governor Coolidge is officially notified of his nomination as vice president. Twenty-thousand visitors descend on the town that Coolidge has called home since 1895.


Coolidge hosts a luncheon at his home for the notification committee then joins his wife and two sons from press photos in front of the duplex they have rented since 1906:


At the ceremonies on the recreation grounds at Smith College, Governor Edwin P. Morrow of Kentucky officially notifies the candidate: "The west called to the east, north and south heard the call and the nation made the answer."

In his acceptance speech, Coolidge pays tribute to the head of the ticket:
Your presence tells me of a leader and a cause. A leader in Warren G. Harding, the united choice of a united party, a statesman of ability, seasoned by experience, a fitting representative of the common aspirations of his fellow citizens, wise enough to seek counsel, great enough to recognize merit, and in all things a stalwart American...
Additional Information:
  • An article about the Coolidge centennial.
  • The Forbes Library in Northampton has put together a digital collection to commemorate Coolidge's notification day.
Sources:
  • "Coolidge Calls for Rule of People; Back's Harding's Stand on League." New York Times. 28 July 1920.
  • "Harding and Golf May Get Divorce." Okmulgee Times. 28 July 1920.
  • "National Advertising Campaign for G.O.P." Washington Star. 28 July 1920.
  • "Rescue from War Reactions U.S. Need, Says Mr. Coolidge." Washington Star. 27 July 1920.
  • "Wireless Sent Yank Athletes." Marion Star. 27 July 1920.
Images:
  • "Coolidge campaign banner photograph." Forbes Library.
  • "Coolidge family on steps of 21 Massasoit Street on Notification Day photograph." Forbes Library. (This may be the only picture of a smiling Calvin Coolidge that I've ever seen.)
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