John Coolidge writing to his father, Governor Calvin Coolidge: March 6, 1919.

John, twelve, gives his father a rundown of his arithmetic grades. John asks about his mother. Grace was in Boston, attending to duties as first lady of Massachusetts. She was on hand to, along with the governor, welcome President Woodrow Wilson back to the United States after the Versailles Peace Conference. Said the Boston Daily Globe of the president’s arrival, “Boston, the city chosen by the President of the United States as the port of debarkation upon his return from the Peace Conference, had sustained her old traditions. Boston turned out en masse to welcome Mr. Wilson.”

John goes on to express to his father his desire to take violin lessons. Although Coolidge himself played nothing more than the harmonica, Grace took piano lessons as a young girl and was adept at playing. She must have said “yes” to lessons as both John and Calvin, Jr. do later learn to play the violin. Coolidge’s uncle, John Wilder, was an accomplished “fiddle” player. “Uncle John” organized the “Wilder Quadrille Band” which, according to the Burlington Free Press, “was one of the best known musical organizations in the state. Governors and their councilors danced to its music as well as artisans and farmers.”