The Vagabonds visit President Coolidge

President Calvin Coolidge is pictured here with his father, Colonel John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison. The real photo postcard was taken in 1924 during one of the most famous visits to the President’s home in Plymouth Notch, Massachusetts. Pictured in the photo: President Calvin Coolidge (second from left) his father, Colonel John Calvin Coolidge, Sr., (far left), Henry Ford (second from right), and Thomas Edison (far right). After everyone autographed the sap bucket, shown in the middle of the photo, President Coolidge gave it to Henry Ford. The bucket was owned by the President’s great-great-grandfather. The sap bucket was on display in the barroom of the Wayside Inn (once owned by Ford) in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Plymouth Notch was President Coolidge’s boyhood home. This was the third trip to Plymouth in the past year. During his first trip, his father woke him up to tell him that President Warren G. Harding had died and now Calvin was president. The second trip was to bury his son, Calvin Jr., who died of blood poisoning from an infected blister. This third visit was to escape the heat and pressures of Washington and get some much-needed rest. There wasn’t a lot in town except a few houses and a general store along with a set of buildings and a little church. The set of buildings became the temporary White House. President Coolidge sat around his father’s house reading or visiting during this time. One visitor complained that he had trouble harvesting because of illness in his family so the President volunteered to help.

Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Henry Firestone (not pictured) were on a camping journey together. Between 1915 and 1924, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs called themselves The Four Vagabonds. They took yearly camping trips from 1916-1924. Their camping trips are widely credited with initiating recreational car travel. The idea started in 1914 when Henry Ford and John Burroughs visited Thomas Edison in Florida and toured the Everglades. The next year the three of them went to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in California. Edison, Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone traveled through New England in 1916. In 1918, they traveled through West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. Other trips included the Adirondacks, the Catskill Mountains, northern Michigan, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Their caravan consisted of several heavy passenger cars and vans that carried the Vagabonds, household staff, and equipment. Also along with the group were Ford Motor Company photographers.

Class Activities:

• Find out more about The Vagabonds.
• Find a map and label the places the Vagabonds visited.
• Calculate how many miles the Vagabonds traveled each year.
• How long was Calvin Coolidge President and what were some important things did he do during his presidency?
• How is a sap bucket used?

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Original Postcard owned by Don Hensley