The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum is the only presidential library in Massachusetts and one of just a few that operate outside the federal NARA system. It is run by the City of Northampton through Forbes Library, the public library where Coolidge donated his first batch of papers in 1920, and where the Commonwealth formally established the Coolidge Memorial Room in 1956 at Grace Coolidge’s request.
The setting is part of the appeal. Coolidge practiced law in Northampton, served as the city’s mayor before he was governor or president, lived on Massasoit Street through and after the presidency, and is buried in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. But the public collection of his papers is here. He used the library himself.
What’s there
The Coolidge Memorial Room is a single gallery on the library’s ground floor, but the holdings behind it are substantial: Coolidge’s personal and political papers, the Massachusetts gubernatorial records, photographs, films, and a long shelf of objects given to him as president: Native American beadwork, gifts of state from foreign governments, tokens and trophies from across his career. Display rotates from the larger archive; the cases run from his youth in Vermont through his vice-presidency, the 1923 oath of office at his father’s lamplit kitchen table, the White House years, and his retirement years in Northampton.
Researchers can request access to the archive by appointment; casual visitors do not need to.
Forbes Library itself
The building, finished in 1894 and designed by William C. Brocklesby, is one of the best examples of Richardsonian Romanesque public architecture in Western Massachusetts: a two-tone rough-faced sandstone exterior, deep round-arched window bands on the ground floor, a tall central gable, and a steeply pitched slate roof. Inside, the original reading rooms and oak millwork have been preserved through several renovations, and the Hosmer Gallery off the main lobby hosts a steady program of community art exhibitions.
Visiting
Admission is free. The Coolidge Museum is open Monday through Friday, 10 AM-5 PM, and Saturday, 2-5 PM; archival research requires an appointment. Forbes Library itself has longer public hours Monday through Saturday and is closed Sunday. The library is a short walk from Northampton’s Main Street and from the Smith College Museum of Art on Elm Street.