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.

8/08/2020

An Artist's Impression of Harding

This caricature by Carlo de Fornaro was published 100 years ago today in the New York Times:

According to the artist, "Mr. Harding does not appear as tall as he really is, because of his broad shoulders and the good proportion of his limbs and arms. He stands straight and has a fine head, with white hair which enhances the healthy, pink complexion and the dark eyebrows jutting over kindly blue eyes. A powerful, well-modeled Roman nose overshadows a firm mouth and chin. I have sketched thousands of prominent people--Popes, Kings, Presidents, Generals, politicians, actors, actresses, chorus girls, literary men, saloon keepers, and even convicts, but never has it been my fortune to draw a countenance which from the painter's or sculptor's point of view is more interesting than Harding's..."

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