William McKinley

Following the assassination of President William McKinley on September 14, 1901, the Philadelphia Inquirer initiated a public subscription to erect a proper memorial. McKinley himself was associated with the city’s monuments having dedicated the Washington and Grant memorials.

The Association for Public Art (then known as Fairmount Park Art Association) was asked to coordinate the project and initiated a design competition. Of the thirty-eight models that were submitted for consideration, that of Charles Albert Lopez was chosen.

Born in Metamora, Mexico, Charles Lopez studied with John Quincy Adams in New York City, and later at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Lopez showed great promise when he was awarded the McKinley commission, but he died unexpectedly, soon after completing the working models for the sculpture. The executors of the fund and the Committee on Design selected Isidore Konti, an artist born in Vienna and known for his decorative monumental work, to complete the memorial.

McKinley, who was known for his tariff and currency policies, is depicted in a characteristic pose in the midst of delivering a speech. Below him sits a symbolic figure representing wisdom instructing a youth.

Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022. And Sculpture of a City: Philadelphia’s Treasures in Bronze and Stone by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art) (Walker Publishing Co., New York, 1974).