McKinley Monument, Ohio state capitol.

McKinley Loves Ida Statue

Columbus, Ohio

President McKinley had foes who thought him racist, imperialist, and an enemy of the working man (It was this last category that attracted an assassin). But no one ever doubted that he loved his invalid wife, Ida. So when Ohio unveiled a statue of McKinley on September 14, 1906 -- the fifth anniversary of his death -- the state placed it in front of the Ohio Capitol (McKinley had also been Ohio's governor) on the spot where he would turn, every morning, and wave a handkerchief at his wife as she watched him from her second floor hotel window across the street.

The statue is the work of Herman A. MacNeil, who later designed the Standing Liberty quarter, and was unveiled by Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of the President who replaced McKinley. The McKinley statue is not waving a handkerchief, but he is facing the direction of the window, and is flanked by allegorical figures representing strength, wisdom, and the joys of domestic life.