President Harding and Laddie Boy Pose for a Photographer

In this black and white photograph, a photographer takes a picture President Warren G. Harding playing with the Harding family pet Airedale terrier, Laddie Boy, in front of the South Portico of the White House. 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.