It's that time in the American presidency when we have reached the age of

recordings and our subject this week, Benjamin Harrison, is the first

president whose voice we can hear. It sounds like this.

So not very clear at all, but it's a start. This was recorded on an Edison

wax cylinder sometime around Harrison's first year in office in 1889. Also in

this year the Coca-Cola company was created and the first jukebox went into

use in San Francisco. It's the end of the 19th century and technology and

industrialization are reshaping America and amid all this excitement and the

many benefits of innovation, there are also new fears and questions emerging

among citizens that presidents have to address about who might be left behind

in this process and what in our country might be getting destroyed. I'm Lilian

Cunningham with the Washington Post and this is the 23rd episode of presidential.

Benjamin Harrison was born in Indiana in 1833. He was one of 13 children and he

served as president from 1889 until 1893. So right smack in the middle of

Grover Cleveland's two terms. The history books today barely even mention

Benjamin Harrison though and when they do the write-ups are usually not too

praising. There was one historian I came across who wrote that Harrison would

probably have been better liked and better remembered today if he'd at least

died a month into office like his grandfather the 9th president William Henry

Harrison did. So the challenge I set for myself for this episode was to find at

least a couple of the overlooked ways that Benjamin Harrison didn't leave an

imprint on our country and on the presidency and personally I ended up most

...