The Hardings driving in Alaska.
This very day, ninety-two years ago, Americans awoke to newspaper and radio reports of the President’s sudden death in San Francisco’s Palace Hotel, while he was in the middle of what was intended to be a two-month tour of the nation.
The coffin of President Harding being carried into a hearse from the Palace Hotel.
Even by the standards of today’s far fitter presidential health and expedited modern travel, it was a challenging undertaking, not merely a transcontinental trip by train in the blistering summer of 1923, but then a voyage from the Pacific coast up to the U.S. territory known as Alaska.
By the early 1920s, as communication and transportation technology was suddenly making accessible parts of the world long unfathomable, the “land of the midnight sun,” was still perceived as a mythical place.
The vast, remote former Russian outpost had gripped the nation’s fascination and held it ever since its glory days of the gold rush of the Gay 90’s.
Winter coats in July. A popular image from the Keystone stereopticon cards made of the Hardings in Alaska.
Gathered below and published together for the first time are over ninety previously unseen or rarely seen photographs of the historic presidential trip, drawn from original snapshots, stereo-opticon cards, private collections and Alaskan historical sources.
This is the first time the pictures have been gathered together and through their sequencing the entire fatal Harding journey to Alaska is told.
There is a startling intimacy to many of these images of a presidency born into the first full-blown modern age of electronic media. The trust and ease of an earlier era lingers, yet now technology made it possible to capture close up.
And there is a poignancy in some way, for the loss of a more accessible President, friendly and warm to all and just as excited to meet the sparse population of such a mammoth wilderness – as they were to meet him.
Further, after the end of the photographs, is a video of the original newsreels shown in Roaring Twenties movie palaces to Americans during the summer of 1923, with period organ music, tracing the Alaska trip and the President’s sudden death.
(To continue reading and to see all of the photographs and video for free, please register below as a member. If you are already a subscriber, you must still register as a member)
Florence Harding boldly gesturing to the Governor of Wyoming during the stop in Cheyenne on June 25, while President Harding modesty remains at the side.
For a President beset by worsening health and the threat of rising scandal like Warren G. Harding, following through on the exhausting itinerary was a dangerous venture. Several advisers and friends urged him not to go.
The First Lady nevertheless won her argument for going, if only for the fact that she wanted the people of the western part of the country to see and hear their President.
Dr. Charles Sawyer, the homeopath who was like a Rasputin to Florence Harding but ultimately proved incompetent.
She was the one most were worried about, given her precarious health and near-death just nine months earlier but for all the premonitory fears that emerged as momentary quirks and superstitions, Florence Kling Harding always lived fearlessly.
With misplaced faith in Charles “Doc” Sawyer, the homeopath she insisted was practically a miracle worker and was always near them both, the First Lady believed the President’s deteriorating health condition could be sustained.
Besides, for some thirty years she had been experiencing a recurring dream of Alaska and believed it was almost her duty to fulfill what she insisted was her mystical destiny to fulfill.
Eskimo Pie was first sold the year the Hardings went to Alaska.
With self-deprecatory wit, she told people that the President just had to go, after all she’d been eating box after box of that newfangled frozen sweet in the icebox to prepare for the trip: Eskimo Pie.
By this time, the first great scandal of the Harding Administration was beginning to break, with congressional investigations into Veterans Bureau irregularities first made known in the early part of the year, scheduled after the summer recess. Malfeasance involving the Attorney General’s operations at the Justice Department and the Interior Secretary’s leasing of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming and elsewhere, were to also go public in the autumn months ahead, with ensuring investigations. Harding would not live to know about this.
The Hardings and their large party left Washington on June 20, 1923 for what was intended as a two-month tour.
Despite his condition, President Harding was all too relieved to be leaving the muggy capital behind him just as the vernal equinox began, and journey into the heartlands and far west, with the great adventure of becoming the first American President to visit the faraway Alaska beyond that.
They left Washington on June 20 with dozens of typists, clerks and White House staff and officials including the Speaker of the House, numerous members of Congress and various Cabinet officials who joined or left the party along the way.
Harding with members of Congress who came to Alaska with him.
Ensuring that every incident of the trip would be fully chronicled for the nation, nearly thirty reporters, photographers and newsreel cameramen from the national press corps were also aboard. Keystone Photographers turned out the clearest, even haunting of images, to be used exclusively for the double-image stereopticon cards.
There were some forty-three official stops on the trip across the country, through West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho. Montana, Washington and Oregon.
The Hardings greet crowds across the country from the rear platform of their train.
All along the way, massive numbers of crowds showed up, sometimes crowding the rails and preventing the train from exiting stations. There were cowgirls, railroad workers, sheep herders, immigrant fraternal orders, garden club ladies, and always thousands of schoolchildren.
Smiling for the press in Alaska, President Warren Harding and First Lady Florence Harding.
Hundreds of thousands of people were estimated to have turned out to see President Harding , most of them planning on getting his autograph, shaking his hand, snapping his picture or having a word with him.
If that wasn’t daunting enough, he and the First Lady were expected to participate in local events.
Harding running a wheat thrasher in Kansas.
From riding a wheat thrasher in Kansas, the President’s face was badly sunburned, but he carried on. He gamely rode horseback with a cowboy scarf tied around his neck through Zion Park, which the First Lady then declared must be made a national park (it was).
Although he could not countermand his superior Doc Sawyer, an increasingly alarmed naval physican Joel Boone scribbled careful diary notes of the President’s visibly worsening condition.
A listless President and energetic First Lady, Salt Lake City.
The First Lady, in contrast, seemed to gather amazing strength from the loving crowds, riding atop a rickety stagecoach during the Oregon trail centennial, and vigorously pumping the sooty hands of hundreds of miners.
Harding playing what proved to be his last game of golf, in Vancouver.
For the superstitious First Lady, however, there were ominous signs before they even reached the Pacific coast. During a stop in Colorado, some newsmen drove off to take in the sights at Lookout Mountain. Their car plunged down a ravine, killing them all instantly. In Utah, a man waiting to meet the President at a hotel reception seemed peculiar enough to warrant Secret Service attention. He was found to be carrying a knife.
Enroute to Alaska, the Hardings pose with the national press corps reporters who covered their trip.
She feared that the S.S. Henderson, the naval transport they boarded on July 5 at Tacoma, Washington to take to Alaska might be cursed, after learning it had once been burned and abandoned. Such hocus-pocus never troubled Harding. The first incumbent U.S. President to also visit Canada, he stopped in Vancouver – where he played what proved to be his final game of his beloved golf.
Despite the better known conflicts between the couple, Warren and Florence Harding had some public displays of affection in Alaska.
The scenery was breathtaking from any view. The President broke from his poker games to drive the train throttle himself for a length, from Wasilla into small Willow as they headed for the even tinier village of Nenana. It was there that the President, good-naturedly but ill-advisedly, lifted the heavy anvil and drove in the golden spike that completed the Alaska Railroad.
Towards the end of the sojourn to Alaska, many noted that President Harding smoked more heavily and became plagued with anxiety and insomnia.
The last evening of midnight sun faded behind them, Harding became acutely sick. Doc Sawyer told the press it was ptomaine poisoning from bad shellfish, thus introducing the notion of “poisoning the President” into the popular imagination. He muttered that it was not his enemies but his “friends” back in Washington who worried him. He asked Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, ““If you knew of a great scandal in our administration, would you for the good of the country and the party expose it publicly or would you bury it?”
On July 27, a day after leaving Vancouver, sailing in a blinding fog, the Henderson struck and sank a smaller vessel in the wee hours, and the President told his valet, “I hope this ship sinks.” Back on solid ground, he had become even shakier, becoming disoriented as he delivered an address to thousands and dropping the pages of his speech. The itinerary was cancelled. The train rushed to San Francisco.
The coffin of President Harding being carried into a hearse from the Palace Hotel.
In the presidential suite of the Palace Hotel, President Harding died suddenly on the night of August 2, 1923 alone in the presence of his wife and doctor.
Whether it due to a spiritualist tenet or to protect the reputation of Doc Sawyer, the First Lady refused to permit an autopsy. Consulting physicians agreed to issue a death certificate of stroke; in truth, it was a heart attack.
Astrologer Madame Marcia Chaumprey and her client First Lady Florence Harding.
Despite her faith in the dire prophesy made by her astrologer Marcia Chaumprey in 1920 that Harding would die a “sudden, peculiar death by poison,” Florence Harding did not poison her husband. Still, she may have played an entirely innocent role in his fatal heart attack.
Based on the handwritten notes of Dr. Boone (not the sanitized manuscript he composed for public consumption), and the cautious review of my book manuscript Florence Harding by retired Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr. Ken Berger, the constant infusion of powerful purgatives applied by Sawyer to flush out the ptomaine poison he insisted was the root problem likely pushed Harding into cardiac arrest.
A newspaper illustration of Harding’s sick room at the Palace Hotel with the consulting physicians, Doc Sawyer (standing, far left) and Florence Harding (standing far right)
It would mean the President’s death was an accidental homicide caused by Sawyer, with the First Lady as an absolutely innocent and unwitting accomplice.
Others disagree.
With her malicious wit, Alice Roosevelt Longworth drew her own conclusion: “Harding of the arteries.
Still, there was no denying that President Warren Harding’s historic 1923 trip to Alaska was one of the great and successful epics in presidential history.
Finally, now – the photographs, and the film.
Warren G. Harding’s Exploration of Alaska
in Photographs and Newsreel Footage
A view of the Harding ship Henderson in Alaska.
The Harding entourage, on deck of the Henderson on their way to Alaska.
Florence Harding, Cabinet wives May Wallace, Laura Work, and the President wave as they enter Alaskan territory.
The Henderson was welcomed in Metlakatla by a native band that was barefooted – which puzzled the First Lady.
The primitive arch at Metlakatla, Alaska welcoming President Harding took nothing away from the experience.
The First Lady and President accepted the first of many fresh Alaska salmons given them by Native Eskimo people.
The fish will be wrapped and brought along.
The President and Mrs. Harding at Metlakahtla, Alaska, July 8, 1923.
Harding raising the stars and stripes at Metlakahtla, Alaska.
The view of Ketchikan from the deck of the Henderson.
The welcome at Ketchikan. Some reporters noted that many of the signs had misspellings, but it was never mentioned by the Hardings.
Harding speaking at Ketchikan.
Laying a Masonic temple cornerstone at Ketchikan.
A more distant view of the ceremony shows how sparsely populated Ketchikan, like all of Alaska then was.
President Harding at ceremonies in Wrangell, Alaska.
Florence Harding finds a friend in a husky pup and 4 year old George Elton Barnes, at Wrangell.
President and Mrs. Harding and Governor Bone of Alaska at the Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau. (Alaska State Library)
The President addresses a crowd from the front porch of the Governor’s Mansion in Juneau.
Warren and Florence Harding walking down the wood sidewallks of the main street of Skagway, Alaska. (Alaska State Library Historical Collections)
President Harding in Skagway, Alaska.
President Harding speaking in Seward.
The Hardings see Seward, Alaska from the back of an open Packard Twin-Six. (the vehiclepresidents.blogspot.com)
A native Eskimo presents Harding with a hand-carved canoe paddle.
President Harding addressing some Alaska residents who first came to the territory during the goldrush.
With their love of dogs, the Hardings insisted on stopping to see a farm where those that pulled sleds in winter were born and raised.
Florence Harding couldn’t help herself from meeting all of the sled dogs.
Mrs. Harding examining mosquito headgear of reindeer apprentice herder at Carlson’s Roadhouse.
The President paused to lay a wreath at a remote burial place of a Native Eskimo veteran of World War I.
The Hardings at an Alaska fox farm in Darwin.
President Harding takes a breather to pose for a photographer part of the long way up a hillside high set of wood stairs in Alaska.
President Harding eager to begin an open-air car drive in Alaska.
President Harding’s historic voyage and exploration of interior Alaska gave Americans a glimpse back into its own pioneer era.
The Hardings being transported by bus to the Anchorage Hotel, one of Alaska’s finest.
President Harding in Anchorage, Alaska on July 17, 1923, ready to board the train.
The interior of the Harding salon Pullman car which they took through Alaska.
President Harding takes time to chat and shake hands with those Anchorage residents who showed up to bid him farewell.
Florence Harding with Colonel Steese, head of the Alaska railroad.
Florence Harding inspects the railway work of the new railroad with its director.
The Hardings pose with the House Speaker and Cabinet members in Alaska. (dorenelorenz.blogspot.com)
The President’s train leaving Wasilla, Alaska.
President Harding took control of the train throttle engine as his train neared Wasilla.
Florence Harding takes the fireman’s seat on the railroad as her husband drove the train.
President Harding decided to ride with the First Lady in the Dodge sedan that was pulled behind the train, near the Snow River.
President Harding exits the fun car at the back of the train.
The Hardings arrive at Curry House.
President Harding pauses at Curry.
The First Lady and Alaskan Governor pose with Harriet Pullen, far left, who’d been running a supply house and tavern since the Gay 90’s Alaska goldrush.
The Hardings stop for children at an Alaska railroad milepost.
President Harding lends a hand in painting the new home of an Alaska railroad employee.
A rustic roadhouse hotel near Mount McKinley, Alaska where the Hardings stayed and which the President dedicated.
The President peeps inside a papoose to greet a native Eskimo infant.
Along with newspaper and magazine still photographers, the first large contingency of newsreel cameramen covering a presidential trip were part of the entourage.
Florence Harding was friendlier and more willing to pose for still photographers than for “you moving picture people!”
Everywhere the Hardings went in Alaska, they were met with effusive warmth by the scattered population.
Harding looks over the golden spike, ready to be hammered into place and complete the Alaska Railroad….
He figures out some spatial impact, much to Florence’s amusement.
…he checks to make sure the spike is steady….
The President gives it a swing….
He comes in right over it, and bang….
Harding accepts a gold replica of the Tetaua Bridge at Nenana, Alaska.
And, as always, Mrs. Harding gets the rose, standing alongside the Nenana roadhouse.
As the presidential train headed towards Fairbanks, it slowed down to let the President acknowledge well-wishers waiting along its path.
Outside of Fairbanks,, the President stopped to listen to some navy personnel stationed in Alaska. (Alaska State Library)
Harding addresses a relatively young crowd of Alaskans. Thirty-six years later they would be voting as citizens of their own state.
The President poses with an Alaska pioneer woman in her garden, outside of Fairbanks.
Florence Harding stopped to get out and inspect some flowerbeds where the Alaskan summer sun made them grow bigger and brighter.
Florence Harding arriving to visit patients in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Fairbanks, Alaska.
The First Lady stands in an open car to pose for a Fairbanks citizen’s snapshot.
House Speaker Gillette and Agriculture Secretary Wallace pause on the Richardson Highway near Valdez to take in the breathtaking view.
Despite his alarming exhaustion, President Harding never failed to stop for a child that wanted to shake his hand.
President Harding walks a gangway to resume the sea voyage through Alaska.
President Harding and his party sit in silence, watching glaciers collapse into the sea at Cordova.
Florence Harding being transported back up onto the Henderson on a jerryrigged elevator.
Florence Harding, Doc Sawyer and his wife and friend Ethel Jennings suspended over the Alaskan waters.
But she was fine walking down and out of the ship.
A launch boat taking the presidential party from the Henderson to the dock at Sitka.
President Harding enters the town of Sitka, Alaska, guided by its mayor H.W. Johnston.
The Hardings leaving St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Sitka.,
At Sitka, Alaska, the Hardings visited St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Church where they were given a rare chance to look at ancient icons.
The Hardings listen to speeches in Sitka, note the traditional Russian spire, right background.
Old Chief Katlean shakes hands with Harding at Sitka.
Florence Harding leaving the Mission House at Sitka.
The Hardings exit the Sheldon Jackson Museum of Indian Relics in Sitka.
Florence Harding accepts a flower basket from children in Sitka.
The Hardings and the presidential party posing before traditional Alaskan totem poles in Sitka.
President Harding walking through Sitka, his final stop in Alaska.
Winter coats in July. Despite her precarious health and his deteriorating condition, the President and Mrs. Harding braved all the elements.
Alaska Governor Bone broke up the monotony of watching glaciers fall into the water by modeling an Eskimo parka for the President and Mrs. Harding. The First Lady checks out the fur, but the President isn’t convinced its a look.
President Harding descends the gangway to look over the Kenai Fjords before leaving Alaska.
Back aboard the Henderson, the President’s mood became noticeably somber. A day after leaving Alaska he came down with severe gastric pains, diagnosed by his physician as ptomaine poisoning. He died six days later.
Categories: Regionality, The Hardings
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