On Sunday, July 4, 1926, America marked its 150th birthday. It came during a period of calm between two storms of history, not long after World War I and shortly before the Great Depression.
That year, the U.S. economy boomed, and cities swelled. Auto travel, consumerism, technology and business expansion defined the era. Though the “Roaring Twenties” would crash three years later, Independence Day in 1926 was still a moment to look back, reflect and celebrate.
The main event on Independence Day was the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where President Calvin Coolidge, the only U.S. president born on the Fourth of July, reaffirmed America’s founding principles in a speech.
“It was not because [the Declaration of Independence] was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4th, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history,” said the normally reticent president. “We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first.”
Coolidge firmly cast the American Revolution as a breakthrough based on fundamentally conservative precepts to secure God-given liberties. He contrasted it with fomenting violent unrest abroad.
Beyond speeches, the Philadelphia exposition celebrated the Fourth in sundry ways: an 80-foot replica of the Liberty Bell with 26,000 lights, an amusement park, religious ceremonies, a “Freedom” pageant, baseball games and golf tournaments. A new bridge spanning the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey, helped moved the crowds.
The sail-powered USS Constellation, built in 1854, was anchored in the Schuylkill River for public viewing. A 300-acre military encampment showcased the nation’s latest weaponry, while veterans from the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and World War I held convivial reunions.
Humorist and writer Corey Ford captured New York’s Independence Day parade in Vanity Fair: “Hours before the parade is due, the crowds along the curb have swollen to truly gigantic proportions, lining the street on both sides for blocks, milling and shoving and indulging freely in fistfights in the gutter. People are beside themselves with excitement, waving small American flags and blowing horns … a sight that they will never forget.”
Not every parade float was built to thrill, however, as some bore numbing titles like “Post-War Conditions in the Linoleum Business” and “The Sister Spirits of Osmosis and Capillary Attraction.” Mardi Gras, it wasn’t.
In New Orleans, an early evening show by Harry Mendelson’s Concert Band was held in City Park, along with an address by federal clerk of court A. Dallam O’Brien Jr. and a reading of the Declaration by Mrs. Rene Salomon. In addition to usual picnic fare, there were steaming pots of gumbo and jambalaya, with dancing, film screenings and fireworks to finish.
Louisiana’s governor in 1926 was Henry L. Fuqua, one of the state’s four chief executives who would die in office. Before seeking the governorship, Fuqua owned a large hardware store in Baton Rouge and later managed the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
Arthur J. O’Keefe was mayor of New Orleans. A businessman, he previously served as the city’s commissioner for public finance. He assumed the office upon the death of Mayor Martin Behrman. A few years after taking office, O’Keefe resigned for health reasons.
O’Keefe was the grandfather of former state Senate President Michael H. O’Keefe and great-grandfather of former Ĵý Chancellor and NASA administration Sean O’Keefe.
In Baton Rouge, Wade Bynum was mayor. He would become the longest serving mayor of Louisiana’s capital city, holding office in two stretches totaling 24 years.
In 1926, WBNO and WJBW radio began broadcasting in New Orleans, the State Palace Theatre was built and Tulane Stadium opened. In Baton Rouge, Ĵý’s new campus was dedicated.
Like other milestone birthdays, the nation’s sesquicentennial reflected the times, the progress that had been made and the challenges ahead.
As Satchel Paige, who coincidentally began his professional pitching career that year, asked, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"
That’s why we celebrate the milestones.