A remnant of presidential lore found in Vt.
Historians at the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, Vt., which houses the president’s collection, are trumpeting the discovery of the tablecloth that was used during Silent Cal’s makeshift swearing-in ceremony in 1923.
Coolidge, who had served as the governor of Massachusetts from 1919 to 1921 before becoming vice president, was visiting his family at his childhood home in Plymouth Notch when he received the news of President Warren Harding’s death.
By light of a kerosene lamp, Coolidge, an Amherst College graduate and a longtime resident of Northampton, Mass., gathered with his family around a table in a sitting room, and in the wee hours of Aug. 3, 1923, he took the oath of office and became the 30th president.
The house, which was donated to the state of Vermont in 1956, has been preserved since that night. For years, a brown-and-white cloth tucked at the end of a daybed was thought to be a shawl, and an embroidered green cloth dressing the table was believed to be the original table covering, he said....
Read entire article at The Boston Globe
Coolidge, who had served as the governor of Massachusetts from 1919 to 1921 before becoming vice president, was visiting his family at his childhood home in Plymouth Notch when he received the news of President Warren Harding’s death.
By light of a kerosene lamp, Coolidge, an Amherst College graduate and a longtime resident of Northampton, Mass., gathered with his family around a table in a sitting room, and in the wee hours of Aug. 3, 1923, he took the oath of office and became the 30th president.
The house, which was donated to the state of Vermont in 1956, has been preserved since that night. For years, a brown-and-white cloth tucked at the end of a daybed was thought to be a shawl, and an embroidered green cloth dressing the table was believed to be the original table covering, he said....