Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965) is considered by many historians to be among the finest orators and writers of the twentieth century. His speeches galvanized Great Britain at its darkest hour during World War II, and his letters to President Franklin D. Roosevelt were instrumental in building support for the war effort from the United States, the country of Churchill’s mother’s birth. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his contribution to the written and spoken word, Churchill became an icon of the post-war age, an internationally recognized leader admired throughout the free world.

Churchill: The Power of Words, on view from June 8 through September 23, 2012 at The Morgan Library & Museum, brings to life the man behind the words through some sixty-five documents, artifacts, and recordings, ranging from edited typescripts of his speeches to his Nobel Medal and Citation to excerpts from his broadcasts made during the London blitz. Items in the exhibition are on loan from the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, as well as from Churchill’s house at Chartwell in Kent, which is administered by Britain’s National Trust.