Winston Churchill Memorial and Library
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Winston Churchill Memorial
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View from the south
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| Location | Fulton, Missouri |
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| Coordinates | 38°50′59.93″N 91°57′16.34″W / 38.8499806°N 91.9545389°WCoordinates: 38°50′59.93″N 91°57′16.34″W / 38.8499806°N 91.9545389°W |
| Built | 1677 |
| Architect | Christopher Wren |
| Architectural style |
Renaissance Classical, English Baroque |
| NRHP Reference # | 72000708 |
| Added to NRHP | March 16, 1972 |
The National Churchill Museum (formerly the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library), located on the Westminster College campus in Fulton, Missouri, United States, commemorates the life and times of Sir Winston Churchill. In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous in the Westminster Historic Gymnasium. In it was the line: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." This sentence caused the oration to become known as the "Iron Curtain" speech. "Sinews of Peace" heralded the beginning of the Cold War.
The National Churchill Museum comprises three distinct but related elements: the Church of St Mary Aldermanbury, the museum, and the "Breakthrough" sculpture.
The central element of the National Churchill Museum is the Church of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, a 16th-century church moved stone-by-stone to Fulton from the City of London. Today, the church looks much as it did in 1677—carefully restored to recreate the building that architect Christopher Wren designed after the Great Fire of London destroyed the original 12th-century church.
Beneath the church is the Churchill museum, renovated in 2006. Through interactive new exhibits, the museum tells Churchill's story, discussing his personal and political life and his legacy. Additionally, the Clementine-Spencer Churchill Reading Room houses an extensive research collection about Churchill and his era.
Outside the church stands the "Breakthrough" sculpture, formed from eight sections of the Berlin Wall. Churchill's granddaughter, artist Edwina Sandys, designed the sculpture in order to commemorate both the "Sinews of Peace" speech and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In 1946, Winston Churchill travelled to Westminster College in order to deliver his famous "Sinews of Peace" address as a part of the Green Lecture series. An extraordinary confluence of circumstances conspired to bring Winston Churchill to Westminster. At the time, the College had a unique connection to U.S. President Harry S. Truman's administration—Major General Harry Vaughan, a graduate of Westminster College. College president Franc McCluer asked Vaughan to see what President Truman could do to induce Churchill to come to Westminster. President Truman thought the idea of bringing Churchill to Missouri (Truman's native state) was a wonderful idea. On the bottom of Churchill's invitation from Westminster College Truman wrote: "This is a wonderful school in my home state. Hope you can do it. I will introduce you." So it was that two world leaders, Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman, descended onto the little campus of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
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