Joel T. Boone Papers

A career officer in the U.S. Navy, Joel Thompson Boone (1889-1974) retired with the rank of Vice Admiral. During President Coolidge's time in office, Boone was the medical officer in charge of the Coolidge family on board the U.S.S. Mayflower, the presidential yacht, and on land was the White House physician second-in-command to Dr. James F. Coupal. Coolidge preferred Boone to Coupal, however, and saw much more of him. Boone was also Mrs. Coolidge's personal physician, and was at the bedside of Calvin Jr. when the Coolidges' died from blood poisoning in 1924.

Because of his unique opportunities with the Coolidge family, Boone was able, in the Chapter on President Coolidge from the Memoirs of His Physician, Joel T. Boone, to provide a more personal view of Coolidge the man than can be gleaned from other materials in this collection. Among the memorable eccentricities that Boone discusses are Coolidge's food binges (repeatedly stuffing himself on nuts, then vomiting) and his exercise habits (showering and dressing for dinner in formal attire, jumping on his electric exercise horse, lathering up a sweat, and then going in to dinner -- he could not be persuaded to exercise first and shower afterwards). We learn of Coolidge's predilection for window-shopping and his relationship with his sons and wife. Boone also manages a measured and humane appraisal of Coolidge's capacity for love.

Although Boone first began to think about writing his autobiography when Herbert Hoover, whom he also served as presidential physician, suggested it just before he left the presidency, it was not until 1963, when Boone was seventy-five, that he actually set to work, using notes he had taken in the years of service he describes. In addition to the long typescript chapter on Coolidge, there is an even longer chapter in the Memoirs on Herbert Hoover as president.

The Boone Papers at the Library of Congress have just recently been opened to the public.