September 1, 2024

Live Webcast on 12 September

On Thursday, 12 September, America’s National Churchill Museum (ANCM) will be hosting a free live webcast that explores Winston Churchill’s lifelong associations with Blenheim Palace, the spectacular venue at which he was born 150 years ago. Timothy Riley, Sandra L. and Monroe E. Trout Director and Chief Curator of ANCM, will be talking with Antonia Keaney, the Social Historian of Blenheim to discuss the subject. For more information and to register, please CLICK HERE.

Winston Churchill once quipped, “At Blenheim I took two very important decisions: to be born and to marry. I am happily content with the decisions I took on both those occasions.” In the 150th anniversary year of Churchill’s birth, ANCM is celebrating Churchill’s many associations with Blenheim Palace, ancestral home of the Churchill family, with a special exhibition, featuring objects from the museum’s collection and select loans from private collections that will run from September 18 through January 12, 2025.

Blenheim Palace was built as a gift from the nation for John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, who led British forces during the War of the Spanish Succession. The Duke and his wife Sarah were great favorites of Queen Anne, and the completed palace became one of the grandest homes in England. The Blenheim Estate remains privately owned and pays for itself. Winston Churchill was born there on November 30, 1874, when his paternal grandfather was 7th Duke of Marlborough.

A centerpiece of the ANCM exhibit is a scale model of Blenheim Palace as large as a queen-size bed. The model was created for and exhibited in the Churchill Pavilion at the 1964–65 World’s Fair in New York City. It was commissioned by the Hallmark Greeting Card Company, whose founder, Joyce Hall, was an enthusiastic Churchillian. Interestingly, the model was built in Independence, Missouri, the home of President Harry S. Truman, who brought Churchill to Westminster College in Fulton, MO in 1946 to deliver what became known as the “Iron Curtain” speech.