CHURCHILL at the WALDORF 1946

Description

On Friday, 15 March 1946, Winston Churchill attended a dinner in his honor given by the City of New York at The Waldorf Astoria hotel. Ten days before, Churchill had delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri and the reverberations from it were still being felt.

“I do not wish to withdraw or modify a single word,” Churchill insisted, after rising to speak at the Waldorf. “…I felt it was necessary for someone in an unofficial position to speak in arresting terms about the present plight of the world.”

The exquisite program for the evening was printed by Cartier and measures 9 3/4 x 12 inches. It is here preserved with the superb 6 x 7 ½-inch reproduction of Yousuf Karsh’s legendary Churchill portrait photograph that came laid-in as a souvenir. The program includes the dinner menu, as well as a two page-spread listing all of Churchill’s official titles, alongside two of his most infamous wartime quotations (in full): “…blood, toil, tears, and sweat,” and “…we shall never surrender.”

The photograph and program are both very lightly creased and age-stained, else fine.

A marvelous piece of history.