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.

8/22/2020

Saturday, August 22, 2020 (ROAD TRIP!)

I traveled to Marion, Ohio, this morning! In the era of social distancing, I was there and back within three hours, which included travel time and exteriors-only site seeing. It was a great morning!

The first stop was east of Marion to see the latest Ohio History Barn. The Ohio History Connection unveiled it in July to mark the Harding centennial:


The second stop was in Marion at the Harding home on Mt. Vernon Avenue. I have been there twice, once in the 1990s and another time in the 2000s. Decades before that, as a fledgling history buff, I sent a letter to the Harding house requesting information about the president (you know, a typical hobby for a kid in elementary school). The letter I received is the reason I am still obsessed with Harding today. Someone took the time to add a hand-written note about Harding in the corner of the official response; no one from the other presidential sites did that. That still makes me smile to this day.

Even though it's currently closed because of renovations and the pandemic, I felt excited to be there. That's a by-product of immersing myself in all things Harding this year.


Here's a photograph of the front porch from the backyard:


You aren't able to stand on the porch right now; it's been roped off while renovations are finished.

Here's a photograph of Mt. Vernon Avenue from the sidewalk in front of the Harding house. Marchers from downtown would have come from this direction.


And here's the new Warren G. Harding Presidential Library and Museum, which has been built behind the Harding house. The opening is indefinitely delayed by the pandemic, but when life returns to normal, this will be one of the first places I go:


I'm including a picture of the Harding Memorial, even though it's not a direct link to the events of 1920. It was the third and final stop in Marion:


No one was at the barn at the same time I was; no one was at the Harding house; but there was a family of five at the memorial, although the grandfather was the only one who seemed interested in being there.

I've placed some other photographs within earlier posts about the McKinley flagpole, campaign headquarters, and the press headquarters.
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