This first centennial of the Calvin Coolidge presidency is as good a time as any to revisit an old-fashioned American idea: that families living in the White House kept pets because they liked pets.
If Americans know anything at all about Calvin Coolidge, U.S. president No. 30, they know he had a pet raccoon. The Coolidge White House (1923-1929) has not been enshrined in high school curricula. It ...