{"id":2830,"date":"2009-02-04T03:36:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-04T08:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/02\/hows-that-again\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:00:57","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:00:57","slug":"hows-that-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/02\/hows-that-again\/","title":{"rendered":"How’s That Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Coolidge<\/a><\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, I posted<\/a> this same picture with the caveat that it was “not an inauguration picture.” It seems, however, that I may have to eat some crow, for there is evidence that it was indeed taken during Calvin Coolidge’s 1925 inaugural celebrations.<\/p>\n

When I bought the photo from a British source many years ago it was captioned “President Harding.” I know that couldn’t be the case, for not only does he not resemble Harding<\/a> but the car in which he’s riding is a 1924 Packard Single Eight<\/a>, a model introduced in December 1923. Harding died the previous August. Others, older than I, have recognized Coolidge<\/a> immediately in the photo.<\/p>\n

In speculating on event depicted I opined that the military man<\/a> sitting next to Coolidge looked like a Russian general, perhaps Joseph Stalin. Silly me. Both Dennis David<\/a> and Randy Poole, both CarPorters of long standing, emailed immediately to say it is General John “Black Jack” Pershing<\/a>. But the date and reason for the photo remained a nagging mystery. I wondered if the pennant<\/a> or flag on the car yielded a clue. Jim Merrick, the insightful archivist at the Stanley Museum<\/a> and who was responsible for much of the research in my Stanley Steamer book<\/a>, said the shield looked like that on the Massachusetts state flag<\/a>, and so it does, in reverse as it might appear on a pennant intended to face the crowd. Close examination suggests it’s not on the car at all, but is strung up to remain unfurled before the assembled audience.<\/p>\n

The big breakthrough was Dennis’s discovery of newsreel footage<\/a> of Coolidge’s 1925 inauguration on YouTube<\/a>. Fortunately, YouTube allows the inquisitive historian to stop the film almost frame by frame for a closer look. If you watch the movie carefully you’ll see the president and party getting into one of several Pierce-Arrow touring cars<\/a>. Then you’ll see bands and more cars in the inaugural parade. At 2:53 I’m sure I see “our” Packard, disc wheels, Winterfront<\/a> and all, but I can’t make out who’s in it. Then at 4:28 comes the clincher, a view of the reviewing shelter or kiosk, which I swear is decorated exactly as it appears in our photo<\/a>. The photo, then, must<\/i> have been taken during that inauguration.<\/p>\n

There are some connections that help corroborate my conclusions. Coolidge, although a Vermont native. spent his entire pre-Washington political career in Massachusetts, becoming the 48th Governor<\/a> in 1919, before moving on two years later as Harding’s running mate. And Pershing? Well, the US Army Band, instigated by Pershing and known as “Pershing’s Own<\/a>,” were making their inauguration debut<\/a> in that parade. They’ve marched for every presidential inauguration since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, I posted this same picture with the caveat that it was “not an inauguration picture.” It seems, however, that I may have to eat some crow, for there is evidence that it was indeed taken during Calvin Coolidge’s 1925 inaugural celebrations. When I bought the photo from a British source many years….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3244,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions\/3244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}