Dr. Cara A. Finnegan, Professor of Communication, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will be giving an online lecture that will explore the so-called “last photographs” of President William McKinley, published in the wake of his assassination at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

This dramatic event offers a compelling story of expectations for photography of presidents at the turn of the twentieth century.

At the time of McKinley’s presidency, photographs could be easily printed in newspapers and magazines, and nearly everyone who wanted to could make their own snapshots with affordable Kodaks.