Our newest piece is a historical one, featuring imagery from Calvin Coolidge’s hometown of Plymouth Notch- now a Vermont State Historical site- and text selected from letters he wrote to his future wife Grace Goodhue. During their year and a half courtship he wrote her very often, sometimes as much as ten times a month, even though they lived across the street from one another. The letters are fascinating to comb through, revealing the strict social protocols of the time (no matter how often they get together he writes after every outing to tell her how much he enjoyed it) as well as a different, more personal side of the future president. He teases Grace about her love for strawberry shortcake, he tells her he is lonesome for her and that he misses her “cross look.” And did you know that our 30th president was fond of little black bears?
Cool thing to note: because the panels are interchangeable, there are 24 possible hanging combinations for this work. Special thanks to the Vermont Historical Society in Barre for access to the complete archive of letters from Calvin Coolidge to Grace Goodhue.
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