Existing comment:
From the Berkshire Hills to Washington, D.C.
Music Division chief Carl Engel had long hoped that the Library of Congress might someday sponsor concerts. But the Library had no performance venue. The first of Coolidge's festivals in Washington, D.C., took place at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art in 1924, followed by a White House reception hosted by President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge. A distant cousin of the president, Coolidge was often mistakenly identified as the first lady, and jokingly referred to herself as "the other Mrs. Coolidge." |