In this Letter, we propose a scheme that integrates a diversity-combining technique with asymmetrical clipping optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) based on a discreet Hartley transform (DHT). Simulations are demonstrated for the DHT-based ACO-OFDM system with a diversity-combining technique. The simulation results indicate that when the optimal weighting factor is chosen, the bit error rate (BER) performance is improved by about 2 dB when the binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) is modulated and about 3 dB when the 16 pulse-amplitude modulation is modulated. Additionally, experiments are presented to verify the feasibility of diversity-combining DHT-based ACO-OFDM. In the transmission experiments, a BPSK-modulated DHT-based ACO-OFDM with a diversity-combining receiver is realized, which improves the BER performance by 1.5 and 1.3 dB for a span length of back-to-back and a 50 km standard single-mode fiber, respectively.