| Exhibition Review | The Journal of American History, 89.1

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| Exhibition Review | The Journal of American History, 89.1 | The History Cooperative

Exhibition Reviews

President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, P.O. Box 247, Plymouth, VT 05056.

Permanent site, opened 1956. Daily 9:30–5:00, end of May to mid-Oct.; adults $6.50, children 14 and under free, families $20, registered groups of 15 or more $5 each. Village of Plymouth Notch (Coolidge's birthplace and family home), 550 acres with about 25 buildings, cemetery, gardens. The 11 buildings open to the public include the general store, cheese factory, village church (owned by Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation), homes, barns, and restaurant (breakfast and lunch). State of Vermont, Division for Historic Preservation, governing authority.
Walking tours, many exhibitions, special events.
Internet: Vermont State Historic Sites <http://www.historicvermont.org> (March 2002), U.S. Presidents, Calvin Coolidge; see also Calendar of Events.
Calvin Coolidge was famous for his silence. Historical accounts are replete with stories of Coolidge's reluctance to speak. Perhaps because of their scarcity, those words that "Silent Cal" did utter have been transformed over time into amusing anecdotes or bits of wisdom. The President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site located in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, is similarly silent regarding Coolidge's place in history. Visitors to the site, operated by the state Division for Historic Preservation, will find a pleasant site that offers little interpretation. A sign in the Visitor Center proclaims the central theme of the site: "Plymouth Notch is considered the best preserved president's birthplace in the nation." The travel writer William Clotworthy described Plymouth Notch as remaining "a late nineteenth/early-twentieth century rural village in a perfect state of preservation" that has remained "unchanged for the last hundred years" (Homes and Libraries of the Presidents, 1995, p. 215). The small village is on the National Register of Historic Places. While visitors might be attracted to Plymouth Notch to see a presidential birthplace, the village is dedicated to explaining turn-of-the-century New England farm life.	1
A lack of commentary on Coolidge's political career would be explainable if Plymouth Notch had remained simply his childhood home. This is not the case, however. It was in Plymouth Notch where, in 1923, his father dramatically administered the oath of office to Vice President Coolidge after the sudden death of Warren G. Harding. As president, Coolidge returned and transformed the sleepy village into the summer White House, where he posed for pictures performing farming chores. Two exhibitions in the Visitor Center offer most of the interpretation presented by the site. The exhibition on Coolidge consists of a series of excerpts from his autobiography placed alongside photographs. A small exhibition explores the life of Grace Coolidge but does so within the traditional boundaries for examining first ladies. She was worth a million dollars to the Republican party, we learn. Visitors then begin a walking tour that consists of fourteen stops that explain late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century farm life.	. . .

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