December 16, 2025

The World of Churchill Collectables

The Hottest Ticket in Town – 1946

An original ticket to Winston Churchill’s “The Sinews of Peace” address, commonly known as the “Iron Curtain” Speech, at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

The ticket is one of a select few of originals printed in 1946 for the speech delivered by Churchill on March 5, 1946 as part of the John Findley Green Foundation Lecture series. The International Churchill Society received this ticket as a gift from America’s National Churchill Museum.

The former British Prime Minister was accompanied to Westminster College by President Harry S. Truman, who introduced the British statesman. Churchill used the occasion to warn of what he perceived to be the looming threat of Soviet communism and outlined how western, democratic nations should work together, using military strength when necessary, to deter Russian expansion and prevent another global war.

Most historians agree that the Iron Curtain speech marked the beginning of the awareness of a “Cold War” and provided a blueprint for how the West would wage, and ultimately win, that conflict. In the speech, Churchill also introduced to a wide public the concept of the “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain.