by America’s National Churchill Museum on the Westminster College campus in Fulton, Missouri, certainly feels out of place! I mean, Churchill was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, so what’s a full-blown museum to him doing in the United States? And really in the middle of nowhere, to be honest.
Well, on March 5, 1946 Churchill gave a speech at Westminster College, and it turned out to be his famous “Sinews of Peace” address (also known as the “Iron Curtain” speech). In it he warned, “an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” This is considered by historians to be the start of the period of Soviet-West U.S. relations known as the cold war.
Churchill was prompted to accept the invitation to speak at the event due to the intervention of a famous native son of Missouri who happened to be living in the White House in Washington, D.C., at the time — President Harry S. Truman. Truman offered to introduce Churchill at the event, which made for one very exciting day in Fulton in 1946!
The museum was established in the 1960s. Instead of constructing a building, the College was able to acquire the ruins of a Christopher Wren-designed structure, the 1677 Church of St Mary Aldermanbury, from London where it had been demolished by a direct hit during World War II. The stones of the building were transported to the site where it was reconstructed.
The museum covers all of Churchill’s personal and professional life with a rather impressive collection of Churchill memorabilia.
The museum is low on items to see and high on signboards to read, so not the most exciting in the world. However, I most definitely enjoyed the exhibit, “A Passion for Painting.” Though he’d never had any formal training, at age 40 he took up painting to relieve his mind and release stress.
The exhibit includes seven original Churchill paintings, and I thought they were quite good.
The third portion of the site is the Breakthrough sculpture by Churchill’s granddaughter Edwina Sandys, which is created from eight sections of the Berlin Wall.
