Harding’s “front porch campaign” brought an estimated 600,000 visitors to Marion between July and October 1920. In front of his house at 380 Mt. Vernon Avenue, Harding addressed crowds numbering in the thousands without the aid of amplification.

In this photograph, two people climb trees to get a better view of the candidate.

In September of 1920, Harding made a rare campaign trip to the Minnesota State Fair, where he gave a speech focused on agriculture. The Minneapolis Morning Tribune predicted a crowd of 25,000 on the grandstand, noting: “Additional voice amplifiers have been installed since the visit of Governor Cox, Democratic nominee, and it is reasonably certain that everyone of the vast audience will be able to hear the message with Senator Harding is to deliver.”

The next day, the Tribune reported that “Harding Day” had brought record attendance to the fair, with Harding “telephoning” his message to 30,000 listeners.

On November 2, 1920, radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast the results of the United States presidential election. That evening — in the first commercial radio broadcast in American history — listeners learned Harding had defeated James Cox to become the 29th president of the United States.

Radio was still in its infancy when people tuned in to the 1920 election returns, and the Ohio History Connection has an example of a “crystal radio” set from the era. These early devices earned their name because they used a crystalline material to receive radio waves. Though crystal radio sets produced weak sound and could only tune into stations within a limited range, they set the stage for radio’s popularity throughout the 1920s.

Harding delivered his inaugural address from a mahogany podium on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol building on March 4, 1921. The podium was adorned with a gold heraldic eagle and other accents. More notable, however, was a speaker box next to the podium. The box was part of a loud speaker system that Bell Telephone Systems installed for the event. Thanks to that “Bellampliphone,” Harding delivered the first amplified presidential inaugural address.

In December of 1920, New York Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr. proposed “to bring home the body of an unknown American warrior who in himself represents no section, creed, or race in the late war and who typifies, moreover, the soul of America and the supreme sacrifice of her heroic dead.”

On November 11, 1921, Armistice Day, President Harding officiated the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. These photographs capture the crowd gathered at Arlington National Cemetery, but they do not represent the full audience for Harding’s address. Through telephone wires, Harding’s words were simultaneously delivered to listeners gathered in New York’s Madison Square Garden and the San Francisco Convention Center.

Harding later wrote to Harry B. Thayer, president of the Bell System:

The wonder of it has been magnified in my own mind by the reports which have come from those cities describing the attitude of the people; of how they followed the exercises in every detail, even to joining in the singing and in the words of prayer at the conclusion of the address. (Quoted in Wallace, p. 35)

Radio soon helped bring Harding and the public closer than ever before. In 1922, he became the first U.S. president to have his voice transmitted live over the airwaves. In May, he delivered speeches to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and at the Lincoln Memorial Dedication, both of which were broadcast by a radio station at the Naval Air Station outside of Washington. In June, a Baltimore station aired Harding’s speech at Fort McHenry.

Then, in 1923, President Harding delivered his first nationally broadcast speech. It was the first time many Americans had a chance to hear their president. On June 23, while in St. Louis on his western tour known as the “Voyage of Understanding,” AT&T established the first chain or “network” of three radio stations. They broadcast Harding’s words in St. Louis, New York, and Washington, D.C. By the end of July, AT&T had expanded  to create a coast-to-coast network that reached San Francisco.

Harding died shortly after, but not before having a radio transmitter installed in his railroad car, turning the Voyage of Understanding into an endeavor in mobile broadcasting. Learn more about Harding's radio broadcasts from the Harding Presidential Sites.