Fame Reaches for McKinley's Head
Springfield, Massachusetts
This memorial looks like something you'd see in a ghastly old cemetery, not in a public square. Described at the time of its unveiling (1908) as "an exceedingly chaste and noble conception," it's a tall granite column, topped by a scowling bronze bust of assassinated President William McKinley. Frozen in front of it is a bronze statue of a young woman in drapery (the allegorical "Fame") trying to reach the remote head with a big palm frond.
The woman and big McKinley head, sculpted by Philip Martiny, have turned green with age. This enhances the monument's eeriness -- but photos of this memorial when it was still new show that it has always looked odd.