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35 minutes of film, covering Uniteds States President William McKinley.
Republican William McKinley of Ohio was elected president in 1896 and re-elected in 1900. He had been preceded by Democrat Grover Cleveland and would be followed, and overshadowed, by Theodore Roosevelt, who was vice-president when McKinley was assassinated in 1901, but later elected president in his own right.
McKinley was the last of five Civil War veterans to serve in the White House, signaling the end of the post-war era. He was also the fifth of the six Ohio presidents to serve during the fifty-year period 1868-1908. The ascendancy of Ohio and the Midwest in national politics demonstrated that the United States was no longer a nation oriented to the Atlantic seaboard.
The 1901 Pan-American Exposition was opened in the spring of 1901 by the new vice president, Theodore Roosevelt. President McKinley had been scheduled to do the honors, but had to cancel because of his wife's illness. It was not until September that the McKinleys were able to inspect the exposition grounds.
On September 6th, President McKinley attended a reception in the Temple of Music Building. The President had been standing in a receiving line, greeting the public for seven minutes when an anarchist named Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley twice at point blank range.
The 19 film segments include: McKinley's inauguration. McKinley taking the oath of office. President McKinley's last public speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. A film shot immediately after the shooting of McKinley, showing a crowd in front of the Temple of Music, attempting to get at the assassin. McKinley's funeral train arriving at Canton Station. The funeral of President McKinley. A recreation of the execution of Czolgosz. |
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