People

Calvin Coolidge with Edison, Ford, and Firestone at Plymouth, Vermont

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President Calvin Coolidge sits with some notable guests at the Coolidge home in Plymouth, Vermont on August 19, 1924. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The house in 2014:

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In the early 1920s, automobile ownership was starting to increase among the American public, in part because of the marketing tactics of some of the men in the 1924 photo.  Seated from left to right are Harvey Firestone (yes, that Firestone), Calvin Coolidge, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Grace Coolidge, and John Calvin Coolidge, Sr.  Standing behind Mrs. Coolidge is Russell Firestone.

For the past 10 years, Edison, Ford, and the Firestones had been taking camping trips across the country to publicize recreational use of automobiles.  During one such trip in August 1924, the industrial giants stopped at Plymouth to visit the president, and although they only stayed for an hour, the journalists covering the president’s vacation made the most of it, photographing the group in front of the Coolidge Homestead.  While the guests were there, President Coolidge gave Henry Ford a gift: a sap bucket that had belonged to his great-great grandfather.  He signed his name on the bottom of the bucket, which is what he appears to be doing in this photo.  Footage of this ceremony can be seen starting at about the 1:45 mark of this film.

Calvin and John Coolidge, Sr. at Plymouth, Vermont (2)

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President Coolidge saying goodbye to his father at his home in Plymouth, Vermont, in August 1924.  Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The scene in 2014:

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The 1924 photo in this post shows Coolidge arriving at his father’s farm, and this one appears to be of him preparing to leave and head back to Washington.  If you look closely, the car has a Washington, DC license plate, which is interesting because I can’t imagine Coolidge would have taken the car all the way back to the White House, given the poor quality of the nation’s roads in pre-Interstate days.  Most likely, Coolidge would ride in this car to the nearest train station (Ludlow, perhaps?), and then the car would be carried on the train back to DC.  Also visible in this photo is Grace Coolidge, who is already seated in the car, and their son John, who is standing behind his grandfather and appears to be looking at whatever the uniformed man is holding.

Calvin and John Coolidge, Sr. at Plymouth, Vermont (1)

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President Calvin Coolidge greeting his father at his home in Plymouth, Vermont, in August 1924.  Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The scene in 2014:

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The first scene shows President Coolidge arriving at his father’s farm in Plymouth, Vermont, probably at the start of his August 1924 vacation.  John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., his father, is the person furthest to the right, shaking hands with his son.

The elder Coolidge was 79 at the time, and he had worked as a farmer, teacher, and store owner over the years.  He also served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1872 to 1878, and in the Vermont Senate in 1910, during the same time that his son was the mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts.  However, he is probably best known for administering the oath of office to his son, who as Vice President the previous year had been visiting his father when word came that President Harding had died.  He remains the only non-judge to administer the oath of office to the president, although he was a notary public.  Because of that, though, there was a concern about the legality of the oath, so Coolidge was sworn in again several weeks later by a federal judge.

John Coolidge, Plymouth, Vermont

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John Coolidge working at his grandfather’s home in Plymouth, Vermont, probably in August 1924. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The scene in 2014:

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Seventeen year old John Coolidge doesn’t look thrilled to be gathering kindling in this photo; apparently his father put him to work during the family’s vacation to President Coolidge’s hometown in Plymouth, Vermont.  Here, he is seen in front of the barn that is attached to the Coolidge Homestead, most likely in August 1924, the summer following his graduation from Mercersburg Academy.  It was a difficult summer for the Coolidge family – President Coolidge had been renominated as the Republican candidate in the November election, but John’s younger brother, Calvin Coolidge, Jr. died in early July of blood poisoning that resulted from an infected blister that Calvin Jr. had sustained while playing tennis with John.

Within a month or so, John would attend Amherst College, graduating in 1928, around the time that the first photo in this post was taken in Northampton.  He later worked for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad before eventually retiring to Plymouth.  There, he helped to create the President Calvin Coolidge State Historical Site, which includes the Coolidge Homestead and other buildings in Plymouth.  He died in 2000 at the age of 93, over 71 years after the end of his father’s presidency.

Calvin Coolidge and Civil War Vet at Plymouth, Vermont

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President Calvin Coolidge meets with a Civil War veteran at his family home in Plymouth, Vermont, in August 1924. Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The scene in 2014:

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Here, two very different generations meet; an unidentified veteran of the Civil War shakes hands with a president who was born seven years after the war had ended.  However, the Civil War wasn’t actually too far removed from 1924, relatively speaking.  Certainly by then many veterans had passed away, but encountering one in 1924 wasn’t unheard of, either; 1924 was closer to the Civil War than 2015 is to World War II.  In fact, the last confirmed veteran of the war died 32 years later, in 1956, during Eisenhower’s presidency.  I don’t know who this veteran was, or what happened to him, but it is possible that he outlived Coolidge, who died relatively young just nine years later.

Calvin Coolidge at Plymouth, Vermont (3)

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President Calvin Coolidge walking up the steps to the Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth, Vermont.  Photo courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The house in 2014:

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This scene shows Calvin Coolidge walking up the steps of the home that he grew up in, now known as the Coolidge Homestead.  He is accompanied by his wife Grace, his father John, and a few other people who I can’t identify.  Today, the house has been restored to its appearance during Coolidge’s presidency.  It looks like several of the trees are still there as well; the two large trees on the left-hand side of the 2014 photo appear to be the same ones that were there in 1924.