Vintage photos taken 100 years ago show what life was like in 1924
October 31, 20240
Pictured above, five contestants in the Miss America contest walk along the beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in July 1924.
That year, 18-year-old Ruth Malcomson of Pennsylvania took home the crown.
Work opportunities for women were gaining momentum by 1924.
Following Harding’s death at age 57 on August 2, 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president.
The 1924 election, a three-way race, was held on November 4, and the incumbent president, Calvin Coolidge, was declared the winner.
Pictured above is the floor of the Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden in 1924.
President Coolidge was known as a man of few words, and his frugality heavily contrasted with the excess and decadence of the Roaring ’20s.
“His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the Presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history … in a time of extravagance and waste,” Alfred E. Smith, a former governor of New York, wrote of Coolidge, calling him “distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement,” according to the White House.
Correction: January 16, 2024 — An earlier version of this story included a photo of a classroom in 1924 that included several sets of twins. The photo has been replaced with one that reflects a more typical classroom from the mid-1920s.