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Health and Medical History of President

Calvin Coolidge

President #30: 1923-1929
↓ Lived 1872-1933 2020 1776
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Maladies & Conditions  · much sleep · depression

Odds & Ends · Doctors · Resources · Cited Sources

Maladies and Conditions
 This style...  ... means the event occurred while President.

much sleep
Coolidge slept 11 hours a day. He went to bed at 10, got up between 7 and 9, and always took an afternoon nap lasting 2 to 4 hours 1a 2a. Was this a lifelong habit, or was it connected with depression?

depression
Coolidge's 16 year old son Calvin died of sepsis (a bacterial infection) on July 7th, 1924. He had developed a blister on his toe after a game of tennis. A few days later, he was dead. The Democratic national convention, in session at the time, adjourned for the evening after the announcement was made 3a. (Coolidge was a Republican.)
The President suffered a period of utmost despondency without ever permitting anyone on the outside even to attempt to help him. He went about his routine almost as usual, giving no outward sign of what I knew to be a great emotional struggle. He never mentioned the illness or the loss of his son, and never gave me or anyone else a chance to express even a word of sympathy. It made me think he might have been far better off if he could have let some emotion show through, at least for a moment. 4a
Some believe that Coolidge's whole presidency changed after the death of his son.
Odds and Ends
Doctors
During Presidency
Resources
 
Sobel
56 reviews
Ampres Series
Greenberg
32 reviews
 
Pietrusza
108 reviews
 
Coolidge
41 reviews
Kansas Series
Ferrell
4 reviews
Signature Series
McCoy
4 reviews
Cited Sources
  1. Hoover, Irwin Hood (Ike). 42 Years in the White House. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934.
        
    a  p.268

    Comment: The Library of Congress contains more of Hoover's first-hand recollections of eight presidents.

  2. Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
        
    a  p.243
        14 reviews
  3. Sobel, Robert. Coolidge: An American Enigma. Washington: Regnery, 1998.
        
    a  pp.295-299
        57 reviews
  4. Smith, Ira R. T.; Morris, Joe Alex. "Dear Mr. President:" The Story of Fifty Years in the White House Mail Room. New York: Julian Messner, 1949.
        
    a  p.118

    Comment: Ira Smith was a peppery fellow who ran the White House mail room from 1897 to 1948. He started working during the administration of William McKinley and was the only mail room staffer until the volume of mail made it necessary to hire help during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt.

  5. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981.
        
    a  p.461
        5 reviews

    Comment: Maps -- in great detail -- the ancestors and descendants of American presidents through Ronald Reagan. They would have had an exhausting time with President Obama's family tree! MORE

Other Sources
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