William McKinley Memorial

The William McKinley Memorial in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park features a towering female figure representing the Republic, rather than a traditional statue of the president himself. Sculptor Robert Ingersoll Aitken chose to model this bronze figure after Alma de Bretteville, a prominent San Francisco socialite and arts patron who also served as the model for the Dewey Monument in Union Square. While McKinley is honored with a small relief portrait on the base, the monumental scale of the allegorical figure dominates the site, emphasizing the conceptual values of leadership over a physical likeness.