Laddie Boy photograph   Save
Ohio History Connection
Description: This 8" by 10" (20.32 by 25.40 cm) image depicts Laddie Boy, President Warren G. Harding's Airedale terrier, seated on the White House lawn. Laddie Boy was a beloved figure in Washington. He had his own chair at cabinet meetings; he would reportedly glare threateningly at his own reflection in the table's shiny wood. In addition, the Newsboys Association raised 19,134 pennies from newsboys, which were then melted down and made into a statue of Laddie Boy. Laddie sat for sculptor named Bashka Paeff 15 times for a statue that is now owned by the Smithsonian. Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) was born in Corsica (now called Blooming Grove), a small town in Morrow County, Ohio. Harding graduated from Ohio Central College in Iberia at the age of sixteen. His family moved to Marion, where Harding taught school and briefly studied law. He worked occasionally as a reporter for a local paper before buying the Marion Star in 1884. Within five years, the Star was one of the most successful small-town newspapers in the state. Harding became popular as the leader of the Citizen's Coronet Band, which played at political rallies, and for his skill as an orator. Willing to follow the lead of political bosses, Harding advanced rapidly in Ohio politics, serving as state senator and lieutenant governor. In 1914 Harding was elected to the U. S. Senate. He launched his famous "front porch" 1920 presidential campaign from the porch of his Victorian home in Marion, Ohio. He won the presidency with sixty percent of the popular vote, promising a "return to normalcy" following the wave of reforms begun during Theodore Roosevelt's administration. As President, Harding appointed several friends to federal office who proved untrustworthy. His administration was tainted by corruption, and the infamous "Teapot Dome" scandal (in which Harding's secretary of the interior leased a U.S. petroleum reserve to a private oil company) nearly destroyed his presidency. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1442_1149128_001
Subjects: Presidents and Politics; Pets; Dogs; Harding, Warren G. (Warren Gamaliel), 1865-1923
Places: Marion (Ohio); Marion County (Ohio); Washington (District of Columbia)