"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."

— Winston Churchill

This special exhibition, featuring objects from the collection of America’s National Churchill Museum and select loans from private collections, explores Churchill's enduring admiration for Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough and one of the grandest homes in England.

This exhibition is made possible by the Anson Cutts Fund for America's National Churchill Museum with cooperation from Blenheim Palace.

In March 1946 at Westminster College, Winston Churchill delivered words that reshaped the postwar world. “The Sinews of Peace”—later known as the “Iron Curtain” speech—was the product of careful thought, historical memory, and Churchill’s experienced statesmanship.

This exhibition examines how Churchill crafted that address: the ideas he drew upon, the draft he revised, and the democratic traditions that shaped his language. Rooted in centuries-old principles—from Magna Carta and common law to the Declaration of Independence—Churchill’s words called for unity, vigilance, and cooperation between free nations at a moment of profound uncertainty.

At the heart of the exhibition is the Museum’s original, near-final draft of the speech, shown complete with Churchill’s final edits recorded, often in shorthand, by his secretary Jo Sturdee. These pages reveal how language became strategy—and how carefully chosen words helped define the Anglo-American alliance, confront the realities of a divided world, and lay foundations for the modern democratic order.

This exhibition made possible, in part, by the Anson Cutts Fund and by contributions from members of The Sinews of Peace Society.