COMPILED BY M. PEILA

GGP STATUES

McKinley: 25th Prez In April 1898, in the 100-day war, the United

States destroyed the Spanish fleet outside Santiago harbor in Cuba, seized Manila in the Philippines, and occupied Puerto Rico. When McKinley was undecided what to do about Spanish possessions other than Cuba, he toured the country and detected an imperialist sentiment. Thus the United States annexed the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. His second term, which had begun auspiciously, came to an end in September 1901. He was standing in a receiving line at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition when Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot him twice. He died eight days later. The events surrounding his assassination are pretty interesting - loads of anarchist attention at the time and several other assassinations happening around the world. More information @

www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/assassins/mckinley/1.html

Henry Halleck(1815-1872)

US Army officer, scholar, and lawyer.

Played a key role in California’s admission to the union.

A noted expert in military studies and was nicknamed “Old Brains”

.

The 20th President of the United States and the second U.S. President to be assassinated — Abraham Lincoln was the first.

Garfield had the second shortest presidency in U.S. history, after William Henry Harrison's. Holding office from March 5 to September 19, 1881, President Garfield served for a total of six months and fifteen days.

James Abram Garfield (1831 - 1881)

John McLaren1846-1943

Scottish horticulturist extraordinaire, served as the superintendent of this beautiful park for 53 years.

Friends with John Muir and disliked statuary.

Designed Lithia Park in Ashland, OR

The namesake of my hometown….

O, my luve is like a red, red rose,That's newly sprung in June;O, my luve is like a melodieThat's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I;And I will luve thee still, my dear,till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,And the rocks melt wi' the sun;And I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands of life shall run.

But fare thee weel, my only luve!O, fare thee weel awhile!And I will come agian, my luve,Tho' 'twere ten thousand miles.

Tho' 'twere then thousand mile, my luve,Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile,And I will come again, my luve,Tho 'twere ten thousand mile.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra(1547 - 1616)

Did you know?

While sailing along the Catalan coast, Cervantes ship was attacked by Algerian corsairs. He was taken captive and spent five years in Algiers as a slave. He had four unsuccessful escape attempts and was finally ransomed by his parents and the Trinitarians and returned to Madrid.

Junipero Serra (1713 - 1784)

Franciscan priest and driving force in

the Spanish conquest and colonization of what is now California.

The Spanish, largely through disease, were responsible for a population decline in the Alta California Indians from about 300,000 in 1769 to about 200,000 by 1821. The strenuous work regime and high population density within the missions themselves also caused high death rates among the mission Indians.

By law, all baptized Indians subjected themselves completely to the authority of the Franciscans; they could be whipped, shackled or imprisoned for disobedience, and hunted down if they fled the mission grounds. Indian recruits, who were often forced to convert nearly at gunpoint, could be expected to survive mission life for only about ten years.

The 18th Prez

Grant Avenue, the city's oldest street, has had three names. Originally called Calle de la Fundacion (street of the founding) in 1845, the name was changed the next year to Dupont.

"By the late 1800s 'Du Pon Gai' ... had gained such an unsavory reputation (tong wars, opium dens, sing-sing girls) that the downtown merchants evoked the image of the 18th president of the United States to upgrade Dupont Street," one historical account explains.

That president was Ulysses S. Grant, who earlier in his military career had been assigned to San Francisco during the peak of the Gold Rush, between 1852 and 1854.

The Doré Vase(La poéme de la vigne)

1877-1882

The book illustrator Gustave Doré

turned to making sculpture in the 1870’s. He devised this ambitious vase 1877-1878. Entitled, La poéme de la vigne, it depicts an allegory of the wine vintage. Figures from the ancient classical rite of Bacchus protect the vines and ensure the quality of the grapes. Doré first exhibited the plaster mold of the vase in 1878, and the Paris foundry of Thiébaut-Frères cast it in bronze in 1882. After being shown at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the vase was sent to California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894-1895, from which it was purchased by M.H. de Young.

The Cider Press is a bronze sculpture done by Thomas Shields Clarke. This is one of his earlier efforts and was originally exhibited at the California Midwinter International Exposition in 1894.

Naked Dude

The background steals the show for me… quite possibly my favorite building in existence (see indulgent picture below)

The statue is a commemorative one – Leonidas??

SF peeps – a little help here…

Robert Emmet1778 -1803

Mr. Emmet was an Irishman charged with treason by the British crown. He was the last person the crown sentenced to be ‘hanged, drawn and quartered.’ The punishment was abolished under the Treason Act of 1814.

His final resting place is not known, though it is expected he was laid to rest in an Anglican church in Dublin.

His parting words are well-know, particularly among Irish nationalists…..

“…I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world--it is the charity of its silence! Let no man write my epitaph: for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them. Let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character; when my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.”

See the full speech here:

http://www.robertemmet.org/speech.htm

I doubt this warrants explanation….

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi

(1813-1901)

An Italian opera composer whose works

include: Macbeth, I Lombardi, Emani, Rigoletto, Oberto, La forza del destino, Aida, Requiem.

Thomas Starr King

A Unitarian minister who strongly supported the Union during the Civil War.

Francis Scott Key Goethe &

Schiller