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.

3/31/2023

Friday, March 31, 2023 (Research Trip to the Ohio History Connection)

I finally cleared my schedule and gave myself a day to do some in-person research on one of my favorite historical interests. I visited the archives at the Ohio History Connection, which I'd have done at some point in 2020 but, you know, the pandemic.

This is the hefty scrapbook in the archives that is the source of most of the Harding campaign photos I found online and posted throughout 2020. It was neat to see! (Also, I was standing under a skylight when I took the photo on my phone, so that's my shadow at the bottom of the book.)

And maybe I've seen this photo before, but it's currently my favorite Harding photograph, of which I now have three:


For what it's worth, 100 years ago today, President Harding was in St. Augustine, Florida. It was the last day of a four-week vacation. The Hardings left Florida that evening for Augusta, Georgia, where they planned to stay a week.
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