ATHOL — At 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 19, local author J.R. Greene will discuss his latest book, “Calvin Coolidge in 100 Objects,” at the Gardner Museum, 28 Pearl St.
Asked how an active Democrat like himself became interested in a Republican icon like Coolidge, Greene told the Athol Daily News, “The interest started because, as you know, I’ve done lots of research on the Quabbin over the years — he was governor when the proposal was first broached and he was vice president when they started pushing the final plan, and he was president when they actually passed it and started building the thing.
“He didn’t really have anything to do with it, but the fact that he had launched his career from Northampton kind of got me interested in looking into his career; also, the fact that he’s the last president to not have a formal federally sponsored presidential library. The Forbes Library in Northampton has what is called the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Room, so it sort of functions as a junior version of a presidential library.”
Greene said he first started researching Coolidge back in 1985, visiting the late president’s birthplace in Plymouth, Vt.
“I found the man fascinating,” said Greene, “partly because somebody like that probably wouldn’t get very far politically in this day and age, with all the TV and media generated things you have to do and say. He did speak a lot more than people think he did. He did press conferences twice a week and made quite a few speeches and addresses as lieutenant governor, governor, vice president, and president.
“A lot of what he said reinforcing the concept of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Founding Fathers’ beliefs and all that. So, he was a true conservative in that sense, as opposed to some people in recent years who call themselves conservatives but are the exact opposite.”
Despite being cast as a friend of big business, Greene noted that by the time Coolidge left the presidency the average working American paid no income taxes.
“Even though he and his Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, did a lot of tax-cutting, what they did was — it started under President Harding, who was his predecessor, who died in office — they cut the budgets tremendously after World War I and that generated surpluses, which allowed them to cut taxes.”
Green said amassing items related to Coolidge was not a difficult task.
“I’ve collected a huge amount of material related to him,” Greene continued, “probably because he was not the most popular president. Most people say, ‘Oh, I want Kennedy, or Reagan, or Franklin Roosevelt, or Teddy Roosevelt, or someone like that. So, it was easy to collect stuff about him. That’s one of the things that sort of enabled my interest, just like I’ve collected a lot of stuff about the Quabbin that I use as illustrations in my books and calendars and things.”
Greene said most of the items cited in his book come in paper form.
“Most of the things I use are what you call ephemera — items made out of paper,” he explained. “As you know, in the days before smart phones and computers and the internet and even TV, of course, they did have radio then, print culture was a very important aspect of how they got their information — newspapers, magazines, particularly campaign and speech pamphlets and things like that. I also include letters and other such items as that (in the book). There’s an invitation to his wedding. There are items that relate to him or items that depict him that show him as a typical public figure; someone whose image was well known and could be placed on, not postage, but poster stamps, advertising stamps, things like that for places he visited during his summer vacations, or different types of booklets and things. They would take quotes from speeches he did to promote the Boy Scouts, or other types of patriotic organizations.
“If I have a copy of a speech he’s giving somewhere, I often have a photograph of him delivering that speech at the location, or him visiting the location. So, it isn’t just the objects themselves, there’s backup material that gives you an image of what’s going on in relation to whatever this object is.”
Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, served from 1923 to 1929. He succeeded to the office upon the death of Warren G. Harding. While vacationing in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the summer of 1927 he announced abruptly, “I do not choose to run for president in 1928.”
Probably known best for his taciturn personality, when Coolidge’s death was announced in January 1933, satirist Dorothy Parker reportedly remarked, “How could they tell?”
“Calvin Coolidge in 100 Items,” published in the fall of 2021, is Greene’s 23rd book and his fourth pertaining to Calvin Coolidge. It is a follow-up to the book, “The Old Quabbin Valley in 100 Objects,” which was released in fall 2020. In addition to four books on Coolidge and 16 related to Quabbin, he has also penned three books on Massachusetts railroads.
Greene will be available to sign copies of “Calvin Coolidge in 100 Objects” as well as copies of some of his other books, which will be offered for sale.
The event will run from 7 to 8 p.m. after a museum-hosted reception from 6:30 to 7 p,m. Reservations are required. Admission for non-member adults is $3
The museum urges all visitors to check its website and Facebook page for possible cancellations or postponements. The museum also asks that visitors wear masks, regardless of their vaccination status.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com