Holy Awesome – Video: President Harding attends the unveiling of a statue of Jeanne d’Arc at Meridian Hill Park in 1922

Well this is freaking awesome. The Meridian Hill Neighborhood Association has a new initiative – they write:

“I wanted to let you know about a new MHNA initiative this year- an online compilation of neighborhood history. It’s just a start, but we’ve already unearthed some cool things: 1922 video footage of President Harding unveiling the Joan of Arc sculpture, a documentary on the New School of African American Thought (once at 2208 14th St), a full historic review of the 1300 block of Florida Ave, etc. In the coming month 3 graduate students from Georgetown will be interviewing some of the neighborhood’s older residents, writing up transcripts and posting them on our new site. We also hope to add more old photos too.

If you (or your readers) have old photos/videos/articles about the neighborhood, we’d love to scan & post them.”

But what got me super psyched is this 1922 video footage they found. Even though there is no sound the footage is mesmerizing. You can watch the video here. The explanation says:

“1922, January 6. Ceremony of unveiling a statue of Jeanne d’Arc in Meridian Park. Crowd assembled for the ceremony. President and Mrs Warren G Harding arrive at ceremony. Officials speak at stand. Unveiling of Jeanne d’Arc statue. Flags on poles. Man places bouquet and flowers in front of the statue. Secretary of War, John W Weeks speaks. Side view of statue. Various officials speak at ceremony.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user pablo.raw