The Original Golden Keys to the City of San Francisco, Given to President Benjamin Harrison During His Great Transcontinental Journey

It is the earliest given by that city to a President not in an institution; Acquired directly from the Harrison descendants and never before offered for sale

In 1891, President Benjamin Harrison undertook a grand transcontinental journey to the West as part of the Centennial celebration of the establishment of the U.S. government under the Constitution. Harrison saw it an opportunity to link the East and West Coasts, as well as to visit states recently admitted to the Union.  It was also the 40th anniversary of the admission of California into the Union.  The presidential train departed Washington on Monday, April 13, 1891, and proceeded to make a large loop through the country, traveling through nineteen states – Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The journey covered nearly 10,000 miles and was widely covered in the press.  

Harrison's stop in San Francisco was a momentous one, being only the second ever by a sitting President.  The Mayor of the city, at the foot of Market Street, welcomed the President and presented him with the Keys to the City, then called the Freedom of the City. In stepping up to accept this honor, Harrison addressed the Mayor, saying "I have received with great gratification these words of welcome which you have extended to me on behalf of the city of San Francisco.  They are but new expressions of the welcome which has been extended to me since I entered the State of California.  Its greatness and glory I knew something of by story and tradition, but what I have seen of its resources has quite surpassed my imagination."

When Harrison returned to Washington, great interest was shown in his trip and the objects he returned with were put on display in the White House. "So many people want to see them that there is talk of allowing them to be put on exhibition at the National Museum for a limited time," a contemporary newspaper account notes.  Among the handful of pieces mentioned by the paper as having returned with Harrison: "In San Francisco… the freedom of the city came on a superbly wrought square of gold."

The Original Keys to the City of San Francisco, then called the Freedom of the City, the very piece given to Harrison by the Mayor in San Francisco in 1891, being approximately 24 karat gold, in its original presentation case.  This piece, acquired by us directly from the Harrison descendants, has never been offered for sale before, and in fact has not been seen by the public since it was exhibited at the White House in 1891.

This piece was of such importance to President Harrison that it is mentioned by name in his Last Will and Testament.

The only previous President to have received the Keys to the City of San Francisco, or Freedom of the City, was Hayes.  His resides in the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center.