Laddie Boy Greeting President Harding

In this black and white photograph, the Hardings family pet Airedale terrier, Laddie Boy, greets the President on his return from his March 1923 visit to Florida. Hardings presidential campaign slogan was "Return to Normalcy" following the end of World War I, and Laddie Boy was the perfect representation of this shift. He even sat in on meetings and had his own cabinet chair. This photograph is from the Herbert E. French Collection, of the National Photo Company at the Library of Congress, which captured life in Washington, D.C., from the Wilson to the Hoover administrations.