African-American heritage of United States presidents
Encyclopedia
The African American heritage of United States presidents is a disputed topic relating primarily to five or six presidents of the 19th and early 20th century who were commonly considered part of white society, but may have descended from Africans.
Not disputed is the African heritage of President Barack Obama
, who has a Kenyan father and white American mother.
, amateur historian J.A. Rogers, sociologist Dr. Nate Terrell, ophthalmologist Dr. Leroy William Vaughn, and Dr. Auset BaKhufu. All but Chancellor base their theories chiefly on the work of J.A. Rogers, who self-published a pamphlet in 1965 claiming African ancestry of five presidents. Vaughn's and BaKhufu's books appear to have been self-published.
Historians' and biographers' studies of these presidents have not supported such claims, nor have the claims above been peer-reviewed. They are generally ignored. They repeat each other's material and are classified as "rumormongers and amateur historians." Terrell at Emporia State University
, Vaughn and BaKhufu have added little substantive research to their claims, although there has been extensive new documentation of race relations by others in the decades since Rogers published his pamphlet.
Citizenship and associated claims split on two dimensions: formal legal citizenship, and full social and political citizenship. While claims of African ancestry may have created social scandal (and that varied in time and place), even in Thomas Jefferson's time, a person of less than one-quarter African ancestry could be considered legally white. Later this was changed so that a person must have one-eighth or less African ancestry to be legally white. Jefferson's mixed-race child from his relationship with Sally Hemings
, Eston Hemings Jefferson, was seven-eighths white. There is ample evidence in historical records that people of mixed race could be accepted in communities, where they exercised the rights to bear arms and vote as white people. Social acceptance by the majority white community was often the key as to whether a person was considered white, more than details about ancestry, especially in early periods when few records were kept.
This classification of ancestry and social class was separate from the legal status derived from partus, the law that made all children of enslaved mothers also slaves. This law strengthened the linking of slavery and race. It was not until after the end of slavery and regaining of power by conservative whites in the late 19th century South
that they passed laws to create racial segregation
and Jim Crow
. From 1890-1908 southern states of the former Confederacy passed constitutional amendments and legislation making voter registration more difficulty, essentially disfranchising most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites.
In the early 20th century, southern states tried to find more ways to enforce segregation
. Beginning with Tennessee in 1910, through Oklahoma in 1931, most southern states adopted the one-drop rule
, and hardened racial lines so that a person of any African ancestry was to be considered black. During the same period, Florida
, Indiana
, Kentucky
, Maryland
, Missouri
, Nebraska
, North Dakota
, and Utah
retained their old "blood fraction" statutes de jure
, but amended these fractions (one-sixteenth, one-thirty-second) to be equivalent to one-drop de facto
.
In recent decades, United States historians have more thoroughly explored the years of slavery and opened up discussion of race relations. They have noted the number and variety of mixed-race families that arose in colonial and antebellum United States. In award-winning research, Paul Heinegg traced the ancestry of free black families in North Carolina
in the 1790 census, finding that most descended from blacks free in colonial Virginia
who migrated to other areas. They were mostly descendants of unions between white women, indentured servant or free, and African men, slave, indentured or free, from years when associations among the working class was more fluid. Historian Dr. Ira Berlin
praised Heinegg's "meticulous research" in his Foreword to his work.
Nell Irvin Painter
examined issues of power in Southern History Across the Color Line (2002). Joshua Rothman looked closely at antebellum Virginia and numerous mixed-race families in Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861 (2003). In two books, scholar Annette Gordon-Reed showed how historians had ignored evidence of Thomas Jefferson
's and Sally Hemings
' long affair and mixed-race children. In her deep research, however, she did not support claims that Jefferson himself was of mixed race descent. DNA studies has shown that Jefferson was likely the father of Hemings' children, and the Monticello Foundation agrees that the weight of historical evidence supports this.
Specifically, Vaughn says, "The chief attack on Jefferson was in a book written by Thomas Hazard in 1867 called The Johnny Cake Papers. Hazard interviewed Paris Gardiner, who said he was present during the 1796 presidential campaign, when one speaker states that Thomas Jefferson was a mean-spirited son of a half-breed Indian squaw and a Virginia mulatto father." (p. 142) Vaughn also quoted biographer Samuel Sloan's statement that there was "something strange" about Thomas Jefferson's reportedly destroying papers and personal effects of his mother Jane Randolph Jefferson
after her death. That is the extent of his evidence.
The Monticello Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello
, characterizes Jefferson's parents this way: "His father Peter Jefferson was a successful planter and surveyor and his mother Jane Randolph a member of one of Virginia's most distinguished families." Further, they describe the quote in The Johnny Cake Papers as one frequently repeated, but attributed in written sources to the 1800 rather than the 1796 election campaign and clearly one made by political opponents. The Johnny Cake Papers were a collection of folk tales published in 1879, not 1867, and only one tale commented on Jefferson. The Foundation states:
Most historians consider Jackson's parents well documented as Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Hutchinson, both of Scots-Irish ancestry, born and married in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, who immigrated to North America before the Revolutionary War. Jackson's father died about three weeks before he was born. Jackson's brother served time as an indentured servant and was a prisoner of war.
Not disputed is the African heritage of President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, who has a Kenyan father and white American mother.
Background
Those working on the heritage topic have included historian William Estabrook ChancellorWilliam Estabrook Chancellor
William Estabrook Chancellor was an American academic and writer. An opponent of the Republican presidential candidate Warren G...
, amateur historian J.A. Rogers, sociologist Dr. Nate Terrell, ophthalmologist Dr. Leroy William Vaughn, and Dr. Auset BaKhufu. All but Chancellor base their theories chiefly on the work of J.A. Rogers, who self-published a pamphlet in 1965 claiming African ancestry of five presidents. Vaughn's and BaKhufu's books appear to have been self-published.
Historians' and biographers' studies of these presidents have not supported such claims, nor have the claims above been peer-reviewed. They are generally ignored. They repeat each other's material and are classified as "rumormongers and amateur historians." Terrell at Emporia State University
Emporia State University
Emporia State University is a university in the city of Emporia in Lyon County, Kansas, just east of the Flint Hills.- History :...
, Vaughn and BaKhufu have added little substantive research to their claims, although there has been extensive new documentation of race relations by others in the decades since Rogers published his pamphlet.
Significance of claims
See Slavery in the United StatesCitizenship and associated claims split on two dimensions: formal legal citizenship, and full social and political citizenship. While claims of African ancestry may have created social scandal (and that varied in time and place), even in Thomas Jefferson's time, a person of less than one-quarter African ancestry could be considered legally white. Later this was changed so that a person must have one-eighth or less African ancestry to be legally white. Jefferson's mixed-race child from his relationship with Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
, Eston Hemings Jefferson, was seven-eighths white. There is ample evidence in historical records that people of mixed race could be accepted in communities, where they exercised the rights to bear arms and vote as white people. Social acceptance by the majority white community was often the key as to whether a person was considered white, more than details about ancestry, especially in early periods when few records were kept.
This classification of ancestry and social class was separate from the legal status derived from partus, the law that made all children of enslaved mothers also slaves. This law strengthened the linking of slavery and race. It was not until after the end of slavery and regaining of power by conservative whites in the late 19th century South
South
South is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.South is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to east and west.By convention, the bottom side of a map is south....
that they passed laws to create racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
and Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
. From 1890-1908 southern states of the former Confederacy passed constitutional amendments and legislation making voter registration more difficulty, essentially disfranchising most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites.
In the early 20th century, southern states tried to find more ways to enforce segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
. Beginning with Tennessee in 1910, through Oklahoma in 1931, most southern states adopted the one-drop rule
One-drop rule
The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States for the social classification as black of individuals with any African ancestry; meaning any person with "one drop of black blood" was considered black...
, and hardened racial lines so that a person of any African ancestry was to be considered black. During the same period, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
, and Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
retained their old "blood fraction" statutes de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
, but amended these fractions (one-sixteenth, one-thirty-second) to be equivalent to one-drop de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
.
In recent decades, United States historians have more thoroughly explored the years of slavery and opened up discussion of race relations. They have noted the number and variety of mixed-race families that arose in colonial and antebellum United States. In award-winning research, Paul Heinegg traced the ancestry of free black families in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
in the 1790 census, finding that most descended from blacks free in colonial Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
who migrated to other areas. They were mostly descendants of unions between white women, indentured servant or free, and African men, slave, indentured or free, from years when associations among the working class was more fluid. Historian Dr. Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin
Ira Berlin is an American historian, a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, and a past President of the Organization of American Historians. Berlin is the author of such books as Many Thousands Gone and Generations of Captivity.-Biography:Berlin received his Ph.D....
praised Heinegg's "meticulous research" in his Foreword to his work.
Nell Irvin Painter
Nell Irvin Painter
Nell Irvin Painter is an American historian notable for her works on southern history of the nineteenth century. She is retired from Princeton University, and served as president of the Organization of American Historians. She also served as president of the Southern Historical...
examined issues of power in Southern History Across the Color Line (2002). Joshua Rothman looked closely at antebellum Virginia and numerous mixed-race families in Notorious in the Neighborhood: Sex and Families across the Color Line in Virginia, 1787-1861 (2003). In two books, scholar Annette Gordon-Reed showed how historians had ignored evidence of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
's and Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
' long affair and mixed-race children. In her deep research, however, she did not support claims that Jefferson himself was of mixed race descent. DNA studies has shown that Jefferson was likely the father of Hemings' children, and the Monticello Foundation agrees that the weight of historical evidence supports this.
Claims of African heritage
None of the claims below have been verified by reliable sources in peer-reviewed publications. The quality of research is suggested by the claims about Thomas Jefferson.- Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
- Vaughn and others claim his mother Jane Randolph JeffersonJane Randolph JeffersonJane Randolph Jefferson, née Jane Randolph was the wife of Peter Jefferson and the mother of president Thomas Jefferson. Born February 9, 1721 in Shadwell Parish, Tower Hamlets, London, she was the daughter of Isham Randolph and Jane Rogers, and a cousin of Peyton Randolph.There is almost no...
was of mixed-race ancestry. There is no historical consensus on such claims. In her recent analyses of historical evidence about the Hemings and Jeffersons, for example, African-American scholar Annette Gordon-Reed makes no claim of African descent in the Randolph family.
Specifically, Vaughn says, "The chief attack on Jefferson was in a book written by Thomas Hazard in 1867 called The Johnny Cake Papers. Hazard interviewed Paris Gardiner, who said he was present during the 1796 presidential campaign, when one speaker states that Thomas Jefferson was a mean-spirited son of a half-breed Indian squaw and a Virginia mulatto father." (p. 142) Vaughn also quoted biographer Samuel Sloan's statement that there was "something strange" about Thomas Jefferson's reportedly destroying papers and personal effects of his mother Jane Randolph Jefferson
Jane Randolph Jefferson
Jane Randolph Jefferson, née Jane Randolph was the wife of Peter Jefferson and the mother of president Thomas Jefferson. Born February 9, 1721 in Shadwell Parish, Tower Hamlets, London, she was the daughter of Isham Randolph and Jane Rogers, and a cousin of Peyton Randolph.There is almost no...
after her death. That is the extent of his evidence.
The Monticello Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
, characterizes Jefferson's parents this way: "His father Peter Jefferson was a successful planter and surveyor and his mother Jane Randolph a member of one of Virginia's most distinguished families." Further, they describe the quote in The Johnny Cake Papers as one frequently repeated, but attributed in written sources to the 1800 rather than the 1796 election campaign and clearly one made by political opponents. The Johnny Cake Papers were a collection of folk tales published in 1879, not 1867, and only one tale commented on Jefferson. The Foundation states:
To date we have not found this quotation in any sources contemporary to the election of 1800. Its earliest known appearance in print is actually in a collection of New England folk tales, The Johnny-Cake Papers. First published in 1879, the stories told date in many cases back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, while others are thought to be even older. The reference in question appears in the "Seventeenth Baking," in which a "most veracious stump orator from ProvidenceProvidence, Rhode IslandProvidence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
" spoke expansively on the achievements of [president] John AdamsJohn AdamsJohn Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
,
- "...the profound and fearless patriot and full-blooded Yankee
YankeeThe term Yankee has several interrelated and often pejorative meanings, usually referring to people originating in the northeastern United States, or still more narrowly New England, where application of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English settlers of the region.The...
, [who] exceeded in every possible respect his competitor, Tom Jefferson, for the Presidency, who, to make the best of him, was nothing but a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father, as was well known in the neighborhood where he was raised, wholly on hoe-cake (made of course-ground Southern corn), bacon, and hominy, with an occasional change of fricasseed bullfrog, for which abominable reptiles he had acquired a taste during his residence among the French in Paris, to whom there could be no question he would sell his country at the first offer made to him cash down, should he be elected to fill the Presidential chair."
- Dixon Wecter, in his essay "Thomas Jefferson, The Gentle Radical," discusses various portrayals of Jefferson by his political enemies, and mentions that "the Jonnycake [sic] Papers later burlesqued such caricatures..."
- Andrew JacksonAndrew JacksonAndrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
's father was claimed to be a "light-skinned slave." Another historian noted a source that said Jackson's brother was sold into slavery as a boy. For the account of Jackson's brother, the historian used a slave narrative of an Andrew Jackson born in KentuckyKentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
in 1814, apparently failing to notice that President Andrew JacksonAndrew JacksonAndrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
was born in 1767 in North CarolinaNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. The full title of the work, first published in 1847, is Narrative and Writings of Andrew Jackson, of Kentucky; Containing an Account of His Birth, and Twenty-Six Years of His Life While a Slave; His Escape; Five Years of Freedom, Together with Anecdotes Relating to Slavery; Journal of One Year's Travels; Sketches, etc. Narrated by Himself; Written by a Friend, Syracuse: Daily and Weekly Star Office.
Most historians consider Jackson's parents well documented as Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Hutchinson, both of Scots-Irish ancestry, born and married in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, who immigrated to North America before the Revolutionary War. Jackson's father died about three weeks before he was born. Jackson's brother served time as an indentured servant and was a prisoner of war.
- Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's mother Nancy HanksNancy HanksNancy Hanks Lincoln was the mother of Abraham Lincoln and of Sarah Lincoln after her marriage to Thomas Lincoln. After the family moved from Kentucky to Spencer County, Indiana, Nancy Lincoln died of milk sickness at the Little Pigeon Creek settlement...
was claimed to have African descent. No reliable historians have supported this.
- Warren G. HardingWarren G. HardingWarren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
was said to have African ancestry by his political opponent, a controversial and "racist" historian William Estabrook ChancellorWilliam Estabrook ChancellorWilliam Estabrook Chancellor was an American academic and writer. An opponent of the Republican presidential candidate Warren G...
. "When asked directly about Chancellor's account, Harding did not make any effort to deny that he may have had an African-American ancestor. He said he did not know and demonstrated that it was not a significant issue. According to the family tree Chancellor created, Harding was the great-grandson of a black woman." Chancellor said Harding's father was a mulattoMulattoMulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
. "Many biographers have dismissed the rumors of Harding’s mixed-race family as little more than a political scandal and Chancellor himself as a Democratic mudslinger and racist ideologue." According to Chancellor, Harding got his only academic degree from Iberia College, which had been "founded to educate fugitive slaves." In fact, the college was founded by abolitionist supporters in the Presbyterian Church in OhioOhioOhio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
for students of both genders and all races. In this, it was similar to Oberlin CollegeOberlin CollegeOberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, which also accepted both genders and all races.
- Calvin CoolidgeCalvin CoolidgeJohn Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
's mother Victoria Moor was claimed to be of a mixed-race family in VermontVermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
. Vaughn noted that her surname was derived from "Moor", the European term for black (it also referred to swarthy). He did not bother to note that the first meaning of her surname is the landscape feature of moor or bog. People's surnames were often based on such landscape features when surnames became generally adopted in 14th century England. Moor/Moore is a common name in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Coolidge said his mother had some Native AmericanNative Americans in the United StatesNative Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
ancestry.
- Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
's father was said to be of mixed blood from Africa, and his mother was mulatto. Historians and biographers of Eisenhower note his parents' German, Swiss and English ancestry and long history in this country. His ancestors settled in Pennsylvania in 1741 and after, and migrated west to Kansas.
External links
- "Brief Biography of Thomas Jefferson", Monticello Foundation
- "Andrew Jackson", North Carolina State Library
- The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Springfield, Illinois
- Victoria Josephine Moor Coolidge photo and data, Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation
- Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library & Museum, Forbes Library, Northampton, MA
- Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum, including Home and Tomb, and photo of parents