I discovered a wealth of materials relating to President William McKinley in and amongst a collection of Pan American Exposition memorobilia that I acquired at a used books store. And so I found myself with an interesting array of materials that commemorated Williams McKinley's assassination. Complete with photographic images of his lengthy and magnificent funeral procession...led by a horse-drawn hearse and coterie of mounted officers.

Among the articles included in this collage are a memorial pin, a postcard showing a model of the planned McKinley Monument and an aerial view of the Pan Am Exposition grounds.

On September 16, 1901, President McKinley and his wife attended the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. As McKinley ascended the steps of the Music Building, Leon Frank Czolgosz emerged from the crowd and shot the President twice with a pistol he had concealed under a handkerchief. Despite being unable to remove one of the bullets, doctors had hopes for the president's recovery,

After convalecsing for more than a week, President William McKinley died from his wounds on September 14, 1901. He was 58 years old. His funeral procession was one of the first ever recorded by Thomas Edison's newly invented motion picture camera.

Czolgosz was tried and convicted of the President's murder. He was executed in Auburn Prison's electric chair in October 1901.