Robot Mr. and Mrs. McKinley
Canton, Ohio
Despite its grand name, the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum devotes only one of its rooms to President McKinley, though it's a big one.
When you enter, you're greeted by motion-sensor-activated robots of the President and First Lady (Unless they're incapacitated by a software bug, as they were during our visit).
The museum calls this gallery "the largest collection of McKinley artifacts in the world," but for a President with such a large tomb -- it's next door to the museum -- it's surprising how little of his stuff survived: some clothes, a few chairs, a rug, a sofa, one of his White House office desks. Compare that meager list to the museum hoard of a modern President, such as Bill Clinton, whose sprawling Presidential library displays a line of his Commander in Chief saxophones.
One of the McKinley artifacts that did survive is his well-worn secret step-up height booster, which he would stand on when he posed for photos behind his desk (Little Bill was only five-foot-seven).
McKinley died eight days after he'd been shot by a crazed anarchist. Items on display in the gallery include the nightshirt that he wore during those eight days ("Ripped down the back," according to a sign, "indicating that some kind of emergency medical procedure may have taken place") and an exact replica of the assassination pistol.
For a sliding fee, visitors to the museum can have breakfast, lunch, or dinner with President McKinley -- a re-enactor wearing a McKinley-style tuxedo, top hat, and lucky red carnation, the same carnation that McKinley gave to a little girl just a minute before he was shot!