Scope and Content Note
The papers of the Coolidge-Pollard families span the years 1818-2015, with the bulk of material dating from 1890 to 1936. The collection documents the relationship between Calvin Coolidge and his maternal relatives, the Pollards of Vermont. Correspondence between them provides insight into Coolidge's personal life, attachment to Vermont, and life in the White House during his presidency. The larger part of the collection concerns the lives, work, and travels of the Pollards who included businessmen, lawyers, politicians, and teachers. The papers contain correspondence, diaries, travel journals, photographs, scrapbooks, legal records, newspaper clippings, and other printed matter that present insights into the everyday lives of the Pollard family. Also available in the collection are genealogical research files created or compiled by genealogist and historian Linda Margaret Farr Welch and members of the Pollard family. The collection is arranged in six series: Calvin Coolidge Papers, Family Correspondence, Other Family Papers, Genealogical Research, Digital Files, and Oversize.
The Calvin Coolidge Papers series showcases the president's relationship with the Pollard family, providing glimpses into his personal and professional life. The series contains correspondence between Coolidge and his extended family during his gubernatorial, presidential, and post presidential careers. Many of his outgoing letters are addressed to his aunt Sarah Jane Moor Pollard, who played an important role in his upbringing following the death of his mother in 1885. The general file of Coolidge's correspondence consists of letters written by him that were retained by individual family members. The Presidential Personal File was maintained by White House staff and contains incoming letters from the Pollards and carbon copies of Coolidge's replies. The file was sent to the Pollards at Coolidge's request after he left office. Subjects in the correspondence include the president's anecdotes on growing up in Vermont, personal requests to and from the Pollards regarding White House visits, and acknowledgment of condolences over the death of the president's son Calvin in 1924. The series also contains correspondence from the president's wife Grace Goodhue Coolidge and other members of his immediate family to the Pollards. Prominent within the series are photographs and what are commonly referred to as "real photo" postcards. These depict members of the Coolidge family, places associated with Coolidge, visits by Calvin and Grace Goodhue Coolidge to Vermont, as well as visits to the Coolidge farm by Thomas A. Edison, Henry Ford, and Will Rogers.
The Family Correspondence series consists of letters to and from members of the Pollard family and other close relatives, including the Bryant, Gale, Moor, and Wilder families. The correspondence is arranged chronologically, with some undated letters filed according to approximate dates provided by Linda Welch. The letters exchange news surrounding the births, graduations, careers, business dealings, weddings, anniversaries, deaths, and travels of the Pollard family. Topics include the World War I military service of brothers Bryant Frank Pollard, Fred Don Pollard (1892- 1932), and Rowland Parker Pollard, as well as their sister Mary Victoria Pollard's work as a dietician at the Debarkation Hospital No. 1 on Ellis Island during the war. Although some personal correspondence with non family members may be found in the series, the bulk of it is filed in the Other Family Papers series under the names of the family members to whom it is addressed.
The Other Family Papers series is arranged in three subseries: By Individual, Miscellany, and Photographs. The first subseries contains the personal papers of individual family members and makes up the bulk of the series. It includes the papers of Don Carlos Pollard who operated several general stores over the years, chiefly in Proctorsville, Vermont. His business correspondence and legal records detail the diversity of his entrpreneurial activities within Vermont and beyond. Included is correspondence with J. E. Freeman, a dealer in mines who helped Pollard secure partial mine ownership and operating rights in Colorado in the 1890s. Pollard's political correspondence records his involvement in Democratic Party politics in Vermont and his public service as a state senator and local selectman.
The papers of Pollard's granddaughter Mary Victoria Pollard include a binder of original letters and ephemera documenting her service as a dietician during World War I. The binder was compiled by Linda Welch and contains material related to Pollard's appointment, notes made by her, and letters from her brothers and other soldiers she knew. The rest of Mary Victoria Pollard's wartime correspondence can be found in her general correspondence in this subseries and in the Family Correspondence series. Her postwar correspondence concerns her work at Madeira School which was located first in the Washington, D.C., and later in McLean, Virginia. Also found among her papers is correspondence with Alfred J. Reich, a heavyweight boxer with whom Pollard had a romantic relationship, and travel journals and photographs from an around the world trip Pollard took with four other women in 1929-1930. Mary Victoria Pollard's brother Rowland Parker Pollard worked for Standard Oil Company in India beginning in 1920 and in Burma after 1929. He remained abroad until 1951. Rowland Pollard's overseas letters to his family, some of which are accompanied by photographs, have been consolidated in this subseries. The correspondence chronicles his work, travels, and family life in Southeast Asia. Also of note is a transcript of a diary written by Isaac Pollard, Jr., in 1850-1855 describing his experiences as a prospector during the California Gold Rush.
There are two other subseries within the Other Family Papers series. The Miscellany subseries contains financial and business records, poetry and other writings, scrapbooks, postcards, greeting cards, political buttons, a handkerchief depicting World War I soldiers, news clippings, and printed matter not attributed to any one family member. The Photographs subseries includes individual portraits and group photographs of the Pollards, as well as members of the Bryant, Gale, Howe, Moor, and Wilder families. The photographs date largely from the late nineteenth century. Photographs of Mary Victoria Pollard purportedly taken by Grace Goodhue Coolidge at the White House can be found here, as well as two photographs of Orson Bean, a film, television, and stage actor. Born Dallas Frederick Burrows, Bean was the son of Marion Pollard Burrows.
The Genealogical Research series contains research notes, family trees, charts, correspondence, transcribed and photocopied historical documents, and published genealogies created or compiled by Linda Welch and various Pollard family members, principally Erminie Lois Pollard. The series traces the connections between the Bryant, Coolidge, Franklin, Gale, Gould, Moor, Pinney, Pollard, and Proctor families and is useful in navigating the familial relationships of the individuals represented in the collection.
The Digital Files were created by Linda Welch and consist of scanned photographs, correspondence, postcards, greeting cards, news clippings, and other documents relating to the Pollard family and their extended relations. Many of the scans are accompanied by transcriptions, captions, and supplemental notes. Most but possibly not all of the originals of the scanned items are available in the physical collection. Printed copies of many of the scans, transcriptions, and notes are filed with the original material in the papers.