Photo of McKinley Monument, Buffalo, N.Y., 1900s

The McKinley Monument in Buffalo, New York is a tribute to the 25th President of the United States, William McKinley, who was assassinated while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901. The monument was designed by the architect Carrère and Hastings and sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor, and was unveiled in 1907. It is located in Niagara Square, the center of Buffalo's government and civic activity, and is a prominent feature of the city's landscape. In 1905, a model of the four lions that would surround the base of the McKinley Monument was completed by Alexander Phimister Proctor, who was a very popular American sculptor at the time. Each one of the lions would be sculpted four times larger than an actual lion and made entirely out of white marble. These lions were modeled after Sultan, a veteran lion from the Bronx Zoological Park and weighs approximately 12 tons and is 12 feet long. The combination of traditional architecture (obelisk) and wild animals was relat