Laddie Boy Waiting for His Owner

In this black and white photograph, the Hardings family pet Airedale terrier, Laddie Boy, waits patiently at the Executive offices of the White House for the return of President Warren G. Harding, who was in the midst of his summer-long "Voyage of Understanding" in the western United States. This photograph was taken a day before President Harding unexpectedly died while on his tour of America. 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.