Letter from Calvin Coolidge to his Father

Date: December 5, 1921

Context: On the vice president’s stationery, Coolidge wordsmiths a headstone for the grave of Abigail Coolidge, his younger sister, who had passed away in 1890. The suggested wording did not please Coolidge. He notes, though, that he would be satisfied with whichever wording that his father chooses.


My dear Father : –

The plans of the monument came in this morning. They seem to me to be very appropriate. The only change I would suggest would be in line 7, which may be written: “Abigail G. Coolidge Daughter” and you could leave out line 8 altogether because the date of birth carries back to the fourth line, and daughter would refer both to you and to Mother. This would save one line and make a little better English. I do not regard this as very material, one way or the other. All the rest of it seems to be in good form.

I am enclosing the letter which you sent to me.

Your son,

Calvin Coolidge


Citation: Coolidge Family Papers, Vermont Historical Society

View the original document

The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Craig Eyermann, who prepared this document for digital publication

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>