Take A Trip To Ohio To Learn About William Mckinley, Trump's Much-admired Gilded Age President

If you've been intrigued by President Donald Trump's praise of his long-ago White House predecessor William McKinley and yearn to know more, it's time you head to Ohio.

America's 25th president was born and is buried in the Buckeye State, where museums and monuments to him abound. Websites promoting the state's McKinley attractions have seen a surge in page views since Trump began highlighting McKinley's Gilded Age presidency , which ran from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. Officials hope a bump in summer tourism will follow.

"I don't think there has been as much interest in William McKinley in at least a century, in terms of kind of the public consciousness," said Kevin Kern, an associate professor of history at the University of Akron. The last time was in 1928, when McKinley's face was printed on the 500 bill .

While Trump has attached himself to McKinley, Kern says the two Republicans' political positions are, in many respects, "really apples and oranges."

In McKinley's day, the United States was just becoming the world's foremost manufacturing power. Tariffs were viewed as a way to protect that momentum. Today, the economy is global.