Presidents McKinley and His Wife Ida at the Temple of Music in Buffalo New York

Temple of Music, Buffalo, N.Y. Where Pres. McKinley was Shot
David Ellis, Publisher, Buffalo, N.Y. Printed in Germany

This unused postcard features a picture of Mr. and Mrs. William McKinley and a metal buffalo.

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The Temple of Music was a concert hall and auditorium built for the Pan-American Exposition which was held in Buffalo, New York, in 1901. U.S. President William McKinley was assassinated inside the building on September 6, 1901. The structure, like most of the other buildings at the exposition, was demolished when the fair ended.

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William McKinley (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination in 1901, six months into his second term. Though his administration was cut short with his assassination, his presidency marked the beginning of a period of dominance by the Republican Party that lasted for more than a third of a century.

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Ida was born in Canton, Ohio, the elder daughter of James Saxton, prominent Canton banker, and Katherine DeWalt. Her grandfather, John Saxton, in 1815 founded The Repository, the city's first and now its only newspaper. A graduate of Brook Hall Seminary, a finishing school in Media, Pennsylvania, Ida was refined, charming, and strikingly attractive when she met William "Bill" McKinley at a picnic in 1867. They did not begin courting until after she returned from a Grand Tour of Europe in 1869. While single, she worked for a time as a cashier in her father's bank, a position then usually reserved for men.