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Please see the August 25, 2000 entry in Flat Teddy's Journal.

Please see the August 27, 2000 entry in Flat Teddy's Journal.

This house in Dayton, Ohio, was the home of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, an African-American poet, novelist, and civil rights advocate. His short life spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When he was in high school in Dayton he edited a newspaper, The Dayton Tattler, that was printed by the Wright brothers, who had a small business of printing neighborhood newspapers. Dunbar was a high-school classmate of Orville Wright. Paul Lawrence Dunbar published twenty-one books during his lifetime. He had many friends around the world; four prominent friends were Frederick Douglass , Booker T. Washington , and of course Wilbur and Orville Wright. He bought this house for his mother, and he lived in it with her in the last years of his life. Among other furnishings in the house, there is a bicycle that the Wright brothers gave him. He died in 1906 at the age of thirty-three.

Warren G. Harding had this house built in Marion, Ohio, his hometown, in 1891. He and his wife Florence were married in the home on July 8, 1891, and lived in it until 1920, when Harding became President and they moved to Washington, D.C. . It was on the porch you see in this picture that Harding conducted his famous "front-porch" campaign that got him elected. He had been a newspaperman for most of his career before entering politics, so he had a great rapport with the media. Behind this house he put in a small pre-fab building, purchased from Sears, Roebuck for $1000, that was designed and sold to be a house. Harding set it up as offices for correspondents who covered his campaign. Never had the news media been so comfortable covering a candidate. That Press Building today is a small museum about Harding's presidency and contains information about two scandals, involving members of his cabinet, that became public after his death. One of those scandals was the infamous Teapot Dome affair.

The stress of the presidency, his probable knowledge of at least one of the scandals soon to become public knowledge, and his poor health led to his death while he was in office. He had traveled to Alaska and was in San Francisco, on his way back to Washington, D.C., when he died on August 2, 1923, of either a heart attack or a cerebral hemorrhage. Symptoms recorded at the time point to the possibility of either cause of death. Calvin Coolidge, the Vice President, was sworn in as President.

Pictured here is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The museum was designed by I. M. Pei. Inside, there are many items on display used by famous rock and roll artists through the years--guitars that Elvis played on, clothes that Madonna wore for filming certain videos, a sheet of paper on which one of the Beach Boys had scribbled lyrics as he was inspired by an idea, record album jackets, candid photographs, and thousands and thousands of things to see. There are also several movie theaters in which one can see such titles as: "The Roots of Rock and Roll," "Rave On: Rock and Roll's Early Years," "Mystery Train," "Kick Out the Jams," "Video Killed the Radio Star," and "Rock Is." There are also kiosks scattered all through the building on all floors where one can put on a set of headphones, touch a computer screen to choose a decade from the 1900's, and listen to music by any artist from each decade, simply by choosing titles displayed on the screen and touching them. The sound fidelity is incredible, and needless to say, I spent a lot of time listening to my old favorites from the 50's and 60's! I was limited by time, so I missed two whole rooms devoted to Hip-Hop and Soul. It was a very fun place to spend an afternoon in Cleveland!

This is The Old Tavern in Madison, Ohio, near the shore of Lake Erie . Before the American Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves , the basement of this building was used as a hiding place for escaped slaves from the South, who had arrived there with the help of a network of people called the Underground Railroad . In getting to this place, the escapees would have traveled for weeks at a time from the South, walking at night and hiding in safe places (like this very one) during the day. Sometimes instead of walking at night, they would be hidden in a wagon under loads of produce or helped in many other creative ways by sympathizers to the cause of anti-slavery. Once here on the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, they could get in a boat belonging to other sympathizers of the cause and be taken across the Great Lakes to Canada and freedom.