Artifacts from former prime minister shown at Truman Museum

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Sixty years after Winston Churchill delivered his famed "Iron Curtain" speech, artifacts from the former British prime minister are making their way back to Missouri.

An exhibit titled "Churchill and the Great Republic," organized by the Library of Congress and the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, England, opens today at the Truman Museum in Independence, Mo.

The exhibit observes the 60th anniversary of the famous declaration, delivered at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., in March 1946. The exhibit runs through Oct. 15.

Daun Van Ee, Library of Congress historical specialist and the exhibit's curator, said Churchill wasn't immediately enamored with President Truman. He questioned who this unknown man was taking over for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his great friend and ally throughout World War II.

"But he liked the decisiveness with which Truman acted and the way he picked up the reins so adroitly after Roosevelt's death," Van Ee said. "He also liked Truman's leadership and, with the coming of the Cold War, his firmness with the Soviets."

Van Ee said those traits formed a bond that moved Churchill to travel to rural Fulton to deliver his speech.

"Truman had a connection with the local college, and Churchill had something very vital to say," Van Ee said. "Truman's offer to go with him and appear on the platform with him was what moved Churchill to go all the way out to Fulton, Mo., a pretty good-sized trip in 1946."

That the exhibit would stop in Missouri isn't necessarily surprising. In addition to delivering the "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College, Churchill agreed to have a number of his paintings reproduced on Hallmark greeting cards, at the behest of Hallmark Inc. founder Joyce Hall.

Hall also organized a major exhibition of Churchill's work at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

"Churchill was proud of his paintings and justifiably so, according to most people," Van Ee said. "A major exhibition such as the one Joyce Hall organized would have gratified him immensely."