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About this image: Portrait of Ida McKinley from May, 1900. Ida McKinley, the First Lady, often had sudden headaches and seizures. In order to keep watch over her, McKinley would usually sit next to her at official dinners, breaking usual tradition. According to one account, on one dinner occasion Mrs. McKinley suddenly began making "a peculiar hissing sound." Her attentive husband quickly picked up a napkin and covered her face, continuing his conversation. Mrs. McKinley recovered a few moments later joined in the conversation where she had left off.

• McKinley's handshake was famous because of its oddity. In order to save strain on his right hand during receptions, the President developed the "McKinley grip." As he greeted his guests, he would smile and squeeze a man's right hand firmly, but before his own hand could be squeezed back, he would grab the man's elbow with his left hand and move him along quickly so he could move on to the next guest.
  
  
• McKinley was legendary for remembering faces and names. Once, while waiting for a ceremony to begin at the Antietam battlefield, he greeted an old veteran at the edge of the stage. He had seen this veteran in a crowd at Gettysburg during a speech he had given a month before. The veteran was obviously shocked when McKinley recognized him, but McKinley played down the fact that anything astonishing had occurred.

Doctor Zebra.
"President William McKinley: Medical History," available from
http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g25.htm;
Internet; accessed 9 February 2005.

Library of Congress .
"96525602," available from
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a53351;
Internet; accessed 9 February 2005.

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