As part of our promise to keep our loyal supporters and followers updated on the progress of the emptying of the Harding Home and the packing away of the more than 5000 artifacts in preparation for the full restoration of the house, we trust that you will like these candid "action shots" of the Ohio History Connection employees cataloguing, wrapping, and carefully packing away every item. It's a painstaking--but rewarding--task. But it's also one that we here on the local staff are glad that we don't have to do! Enjoy the photos and if you have any questions, feel free to ask! In the photos, you will see the President's golf clubs being tagged and prepared for packaging. Other photos show the workers in the library carefully recording the museum numbers of each book before placing them in the storage boxes. And in the Press House, the artifacts are being wrapped in foam plastic and readied for storage in boxes. The row of boxes in the photo gives you an idea of just how many items are involved in this task!

Hello? Is this thing still on? Yes, we’re still here! Even though the house has been closed to the public since Labor Day, we have been very busy preparing the house for restoration. The Hardings are moving out (temporarily)! Before we can start restoring the home, the collections team at the Ohio History Connection have begun to diligently pack the over 5,000 items in our collection. While it’s been a daunting task, it has given us an opportunity to see objects that have not been on display! Here is just a sampling of objects and images from the packing process!

On this date in history, September 20, 1920, Senator Harding entered the final week of his front porch campaign. The week of September 20th would include four final speeches from his home in Marion before taking his campaign on the road. He would spend October traveling to states such as Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and others to wrap up his bid for the presidency.

While our doors might be closed, we are still very busy here at the Harding Home! Read about the process of packing our 5,000 item collection, what members of our design team have discovered preparing the home for restoration, our fall program about Gaston Means, and much more in the fall edition of our newsletter! http://www.hardinghome.org/media/2017/09/Fall-Newsletter.pdf

The Harding Family has donated something rather extraordinary to the people of Ohio. (And, for the record, evidence doesn't point to a flood of women voting for Sen. Warren Harding just because of his good looks. Still, it sure doesn't hurt to have that "certain something.")

Today seemed a bit bittersweet as we closed down the Harding Home Presidential Site for restoration until 2019. While we know that on the other end of this project, things will be even better when the house is restored to its glory as it was in 1920, it was still difficult to say goodbye. We all look forward to seeing it in its new (old?) form when the restoration is completed. And yet... How do you close up a place that seems like your own home, even if on a temporary basis, without feeling a tug at the heart? Closing up the house at the end of the last tour today, and saying goodbye to our staff this week, seemed...somehow... depressing. It seemed like the end of something special--yet the beginning of something new and improved down the road. The heartstrings definitely felt the tugs in two different directions today! All of us on staff at the Harding Home take a pride and an ownership in the house and in our jobs there. We all feel a duty to tell the full story of the Hardings and to keep the flame of their legacy burning bright. But it's more than that for all of us. It's a very deeply personal experience to work in a place where you are so intimately involved in all aspects of the lives of these two special people. We don't just TELL the story, we LIVE it--every day! How could we not do so when we are there with the actual things that Warren and Florence owned and used daily? To us, it's almost as if there are two sets of the Hardings: President and Mrs. Harding, who lived in the White House for 29 months. And then there are Warren and Florence--our dear friends who have entrusted us with the caretaking of their personal belongings and home, and whom we know intimately in every aspect. Telling the story of both versions of these people is the essence of our experience at the Harding Presidential Site. It's truly a labor of love for the entire staff, and it's hard to explain that feeling to someone who hasn't had the pleasure of working there! So we say a temporary "adieu" to the house as we have known it. And we now await its rebirth in its new, improved--and restored-- form in 2019! What an exciting ride that will be! We hope you plan to join us on the next phase of this fantastic adventure in history! Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy as we say a fond (temporary) farewell to this magical, wonderful, historic place!

Short and sweet today. Since this rumor has reared its head once again in light of the recent ugly racism in Charlottesville: to clarify-- once again -- Warren G. Harding was not a member of the Ku Klux Klan at any point in his life. Debunked decades ago. Researched thoroughly. No truth to it. Please share.

Fed up with all of the rumors swirling around Washington D.C. about the Teapot Dome oil leases, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge read his original poem into the Congressional Record early in 1924 (six months after President Harding died). Regardless of how you feel about Lodge or Teapot Dome, you have to admit it's pretty clever. Absolute knowledge have I none. But my aunt's washerwoman's sister's son Heard a policeman on his beat Say to a laborer on the street That he had a letter just last week -- A letter which he did not seek -- From a Chinese merchant in Timbuctoo, Who said that his brother in Cuba knew Of an Indian chief in a Texas town, Who got the dope from a circus clown, That a man in Klondike had it straight From a guy in a South American state, That a wild man over in Borneo Was told by a woman who claimed to know, Of a well-known society rake, Whose mother-in-law will undertake To prove that her husband's sister's niece Has stated plain in a printed piece That she has a son who never comes home Who knows all about the Teapot Dome.

Tune in to WMRN Radio AM-1490 at 10 a.m. this morning to hear Harding Home Site Manager Sherry Hall talk about all things Harding. If you're outside the listening area, you can stream the station online. You're never far from your morning dose of President Harding!

Quote from a lady on a tour this afternoon: "I don't think President and Mrs. Harding are dead!" Our guide: "Oh? What do you mean?" The lady: "This site and your staff's presentation make them come alive! So much so that it seems that they never died and have never left here!" We do believe that in just 2 sentences this lady captured the essence of what we try to do at the Harding Home.

Well, folks, the annual Harding Home Haunted Clock Watch Party did not produce any ghostly results again this year! On three separate occasions, the clock on the stairway at the Harding Home has stopped at the EXACT moment that President Harding died. The first time was on the actual night that he died: Thursday, August 2, 1923, in San Francisco, California, at 10:32 pm Marion, Ohio time (7:32 pm California time). Then it stopped again at that exact time on the 50th anniversary of his death in 1973. The most recent time that it stopped was in the year 2000, and that one was witnessed by staff member Shannon Morris, who proved to be a very brave soul to witness it all alone! Every year, the staff of the Harding Home gather in the Reception Hall to see if the ghost (ghosts?) will stop it again! So far, it has not stopped since that 2000 date. This year again there was no ghostly intervention to stop the clock! But who knows when it will happen again--except the Clock Ghost itself! Tune in again in 2019 for the next results of the HAUNTED CLOCK WATCH PARTY! (Insert ghostly laughter here!!!)