Creating Postcards Showing History

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Sometimes postcard collectors would like to see every historic photograph made into a postcard. Often, as good as a photograph may be, they are not used to make postcards. Why not, then, make one to fill the void?

Original photo taken 1922

Here is a postcard that I created and sent to myself on November 3, 2022. It shows three men involved in a very public and memorable act in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 1922. On the left is William Howard Taft, former President and then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court with President Warren G. Harding and Abraham Lincoln’s eldest son, Robert, at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial.

Address side of postcard created by and mailed to
E. S. La Vigne at his home in California

William Howard Taft had a long tenure of service to our country. As a gifted Yale educated lawyer, Taft was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as the 6th Solicitor General of the United States on February 4, 1890. He served until his appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from March 17, 1892, to March 15, 1900.

President William McKinley appointed Taft as Governor-General of the Philippines on March 16, 1900. When Theodore Roosevelt became president after McKinley’s assassination, he named Taft as the 42nd United Sates Secretary of War on February 1, 1904. During this time – for three weeks in the early fall of 1906, Taft also acted as Provisional Governor of Cuba.

Taft became successor to Theodore Roosevelt and went on to become the 27th President of the United States. He served one term (March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913).

On July 11, 1921, President Warren G. Harding nominated Taft to be Chief Justice of the United States. He served until 1930, during which he presided over more than fifty Court decisions. [Two of which were The Federal Baseball Club v. National League (when it was decided that national league baseball was not subject to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act) and Meyer v. Nebraska (a decision that found the Nebraska law against teaching students in minority languages was unconstitutional.)] Justice Taft resigned due to poor health on February 3rd. He passed away the next month on March 8, 1930, at age 72.

Warren Harding began his career by buying and being the editor of the failing Marion Star newspaper in Marion, Ohio. Under his leadership the paper flourished and became successful. He was always interested in politics and was elected to the Ohio State Senate from the 13th district beginning January 1, 1900. Just four years later he became Ohio’s 28th Lieutenant Governor under Governor Myron T. Herrick; he served two years. 

Harding ran for and won, a seat as a United States Senator from Ohio in 1914, an office in which he served until 1921. He left the Senate after winning the 1920 presidential election. He was sworn in as the 29th President of the United States in March.  

The history of Harding’s presidency was short, and in many ways troubling, but when Chief Justice Edward Douglas White died in May 1921, he nominated former President, William Howard Taft to become the new Chief Justice of the court. Taft was confirmed by the senate in July. William Taft is the only person in our country’s history to hold two of its highest constitutional offices: President and Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Robert Lincoln was the eldest son of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, and Mary Todd Lincoln. Harvard educated; he served as a captain in the American Civil War on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant.  

After the war, Lincoln continued his education as a lawyer and built a successful law practice in Chicago, Illinois. Lincoln went on to serve as Secretary of War under President James Garfield and continued under President Chester Arthur, after Garfield’s assassination. He later served as Minister to Great Britain in President Benjamin Harrison’s administration. 

After George Pullman’s death in 1897, Lincoln assumed the presidency of the Pullman Railroad Car Company. He retired from that position in 1911 but continued as chairman of the board until 1924.  

Mr. Lincoln was an honored guest at the dedication of his father’s memorial, in Washington, D.C., in 1922.  He passed away on July 26, 1926, at his estate, Hildene, in Manchester, Vermont. He was 82.

So much history caught in one photograph! 
I thought this photo deserved to be a postcard; so, I made it happen.

**

Robert Todd Lincoln’s sarcophagus at the National Cemetery
in Arlington, Virginia

This 4” x 6” modern chrome postcard is in
the files at Postcard History Online Magazine

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Seems we don’t celebrate our recent presidents as well as back then. Perhaps a series by you is in order, done with the same look and feel.

Robert Lincoln was present when his father died, about forty feet away when President Garfield was fatally shot, and en route to the Pan American Exposition when President McKinley was assassinated on the grounds of that fair.

Very interesting! Thanks for the history and connections you have shared. The positions these men held and the years they served our country speak highly of them. Thanks again!

This article is certainly very interesting and informative. But what I also like is your curiosity about a topic and how you pursue that curiosity. Postcards bring out that need to know more about what we are seeing in the image. You take it to the next level by pursuing more surrounding the imaging and sharing it with others. Thank you once again for a great article.

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