Pinback button promoting Calvin Coolidge for president, 1924. The Whitehead & Hoag Co., Newark, New Jersey.
Calvin Coolidge became president upon the death of Warren Harding in August 1923, sworn-in by his own father, a justice of the peace in his home town of Plymouth, Vermont. Taking over a scandal-plagued administration, Coolidge managed to escape unscathed and went unchallenged for the Republican nomination the following year. With the opposition divided in the general election behind Democrat John Davis and Progressive Robert LaFollette, he was sustained by a landslide. The campaign coined one of the more memorable slogans—"Keep Coolidge"—and it appears on numerous buttons.
Deserving credit for restoring the image of the White House, Coolidge (along with his Treasury Secretary, Andrew Mellon) has been blamed for economic policies that led to over-speculation, culminating in the market crash of 1929 and the subsequent global depression. Perhaps foreseeing what was on the horizon, Silent Cal declined to run for a second term in 1928.
We offer an original campaign button from 1924 featuring the trademark Coolidge slogan.
