Dispatches From the Parks: William Howard Taft National Historic Site

My recent visit to Ohio concluded with a quick stop in Cincinnati and the city’s national park site: William Howard Taft National Historic Site. The site was established in 1969 to preserve William Howard Taft’s childhood home. Taft served as President of the United States in the early 20th century. Not one of the more well known presidents, if you knew anything else about him besides that he was president, it was probably that he was also our heaviest president at over 300 pounds in weight. However, his life was notable in our larger American history in two ways: his relationship with the much more popular Theodore Roosevelt (Taft was chosen by Roosevelt as his successor before they had a falling out and ending up breaking the Republican Party) and the fact that he is the only president to also serve as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

The park is in the middle of Cincinnati, which makes for an interesting and busy drive into the park. The park is composed of the visitor center (known as the Taft Education Center) and Taft’s childhood home. The visitor center was in a bit of a mess when I visited as a lot of it seemed to be under construction. At least one exhibit was closed. The main and only exhibit that was open was oddly about lithophanes. Lithophanes are a type of art form in which drawings are put on see through plaques that are normally displayed while backlit to create a cool design. At one point Taft was into designing them which made for an interesting but loose connection. The main exhibit apparently changes quite often as the lithophanes are only on display through the end of February and the exhibit was just recently opened. My favorite lithophane on display was one that appeared to depict a Yellowstone geyser. I was unable to tour the home so the rest of my trip to the park was spent watching the park video. It’s displayed in an auditorium that seems to be the most up to date room in the entire building. The video was a bit dated but quite informative about Taft’s judicial career (although it focuses on his entire life). It was nice to hear from this perspective rather than through his relationship with Theodore Roosevelt, which seems to be the main viewpoint that historians take on his presidency.

The trip to William Howard Taft National Historic Site was all and all an informative one even though I wish I got more out of it.