Benjamin Harrison, anyone? He was our 23rd president, well known to few, a mere name to most, probably unknown to those younger than, say, 40 if they went to a union-run school where American history isn’t taught save for the doings of Sacajawea, Harriet Tubman, Norma Rae, and their many oppressors among the patriarchy.
The story of Harrison (1833–1901) as told at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site — and he was a consequential president — isn’t just his own. It’s the story of his Victorian house and its preservation. It’s a piece of the Gilded Age. Then there’s Harrison’s grandfather, William Henry Harrison, Old Tippecanoe, president for one month in 1841, and a Whig god. Harrison’s great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison V, signed the Declaration of Independence along with four other Harrison kin. So there’s a story to tell for America’s 250th as well. It’s an essential Indiana visit.
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