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Presidential Campaigning--Front Porch Style
During President Harding’s election campaign, the method of communication was drastically different from campaign efforts of today. He was one of few to use the front porch as a meeting place for speeches and promotional events. Mrs. Harding was very supportive of his election endeavors. At one time, he was going to drop out of the race, but partly due to his wife’s encouragement, he pushed on, winning the election. There is no doubt that Mrs. Harding helped in the ‘presentation’ of her home and, most specifically, the porch, as the ‘front porch campaign’ was under full swing.
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More Inventions: The Self-winding Watch
Inventors were busy during this time period: witness the self-winding watch, which was patented during the lifetime of Mrs. Harding. This development was especially useful for the future waterproof watch concept: there was no need to disassemble the watch face in order to access and wind the watch. These watches were wound by the wearer’s motion during walking. A pendulum inside the watch moves back and forth with movement and ‘winds’ the watch.
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Local Newspapers with Big Impact
First Lady Florence Harding met William Harding while working for the local small-town newspaper, the Marion Star. Before he became President, Harding purchased the Star and built it into one of the most successful small-town newspapers in Ohio.
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Hooray for the Hardware Store: It Keeps Us Together
Florence Harding's father owned a hardware store in Marion, Ohio, a place where young Florence often worked and learned valuable business skills. But the story of the hardware store is the story of America--a place that sells "the elements that hold our world together," and "the place we go when things fall apart."
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Safety or Civil Liberty? The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti
From the Russian revolution in 1917 until about 1920, the United States was plagued by what turned out to be an irrational fear of communism, socialism, or anything that was thought to be a threat to the "American way of life." In this period, as in a later period in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the term for this fear was "the Red scare."
As has been the case since September 11, 2001, a major perceived threat to the United States is often accompanied by efforts to restrain civil liberties, to spy on citizens, and to arrest, try, and convict people for crimes whether or not there is real evidence to support the conviction. Such was the case of two professed anarchists, Nicola Sacco and Barfolomeo Vanzetti, who were tried for murder during the Harding administration, and eventually executed.
Many people believe these men were innocent of the crimes of which they were accused. We leave it to you to decide.
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King Tut and All That
The discovery of the seemingly undisturbed tomb of King Tutankhamun (King Tut) in 1922 was a major archeological event. The news dominated front pages of newspapers worldwide for days. As newspaper people, Warren and Florence Harding would have followed the coverage carefully.
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Women Get the Vote--By One Vote!
The right of women to vote was finally a reality when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1920, during the administration of Warren G. Harding. One cannot help but think that Florence Harding was particularly gratified.
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Tempest in a Teapot? Historic Presidential Scandals
President Harding has been accused of being--or at least not preventing--corruption in government. He is, however, unfortunately not alone. Presidential scandals, such as the so-called "Teapot Dome" scandal of the Harding administration, are not new.
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The High Cost of War: Advances in Battlefield Medicine
Wars always involve human death. Typically, the first wars that the U.S. experienced as a nation resulted in great numbers of deaths after even the smallest of injuries due to infection and lack of medical knowledge or treatment. As more wars took place over time, medicine advanced, and fewer soldiers died from lack of adequate medical treatment. During Mrs. Harding’s lifetime, World War I took its toll on human lives. At the same time, though, medical advances on the battlefield reduced the numbers of deaths from war injuries.
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First Ladies as Activists
Many First Ladies have adopted specific causes to which they have given their names, their time, their energies, and often their money. Flo Harding was no exception. She was a tireless advocate for American veterans.
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Movies for a Nickel! The Nickelodeon
In the early years of the 20th century, a new medium was developed that would provide mass entertainment, the wide spread of ideas, and a powerful set of visual images to the public--the motion picture. During the lifetime of Florence and Warren Harding, this medium saw its beginnings in the neighborhood movie theatre--the nickelodeon.
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