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.

8/14/2020

Saturday, August 14, 1920

The Longworths return to Cincinnati this morning. At noon, on his porch, Harding meets the members of the Coburn's Minstrels after they perform for him.

Senator Harding's campaign aides announce that the candidate will deliver an address at the Minnesota State Fair on September 8, while also denying the trip is a change to the front-porch campaign: "The senator let it be known that an agricultural speech in the West has been in contemplation since two days following his nomination."

Governor Cox travels to Wheeling, West Virginia, today to make his first campaign speech outside of Ohio.

Sources:

  • "To Speak Here on Labor Day." Marion Star. 14 August 1920.
  • The image is from a newspaper published August 14, 1920 (but not taken on this date).


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