American Embassy in London Winston S. Churchill, Clementine Churchill, Elizabeth Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Dwight D. Eisenhower Signed Guestbook.

[CHURCHILL, Winston S.; Princess Margaret; Clementine Churchill; Anthony Eden; Dwight D. Eisenhower; et al].

Item Number: 126088

[London]:, 1951-1952.

Rare 1951-1952 guestbook from the American Embassy in London signed by an impressive array of world leaders and diplomats including Winston S. Churchill, Queen Elizabeth II, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Oblong octavo, bound in full leather with gilt stitching to the panels, watered silk endleaves. Signed by Elizabeth, Queen Mother (“Elizabeth R”), Princess Margaret (“Margaret”),  Winston S. Churchill,  Clementine Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Anthony Eden, Arthur Wellesley (“Wellington”), Margaret Truman, John Foster Dulles, Whitney Straight, Karl Taylor Compton, Gavin Simonds (“Simonds”), Harold Alexander (“Alexander”), William Ormsby-Gore (“Harlech”), Alan Lascelles, Hastings Ismay (“Ismay”), Lord Mayor of London Denys Lowson, John “Johnnie” Bigelow Dodge,  René Massigli, Walter F. Boone, Ruth Draper, David Maxwell Fyfe, Tommaso Gallarati-Scotti, Florence Horsbrugh, Paul Nitze, Douglas Chandor,  George F. Kennan, Charles Greville (“Warwick”), Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (“Salisbury”), Harold Macmillan, James Clement Dunn, William Joseph Jordan, William Henry Draper, Jr., Philip Cunliffe-Lister (“Swinton”), Perle Mesta, William Harcourt (“Harcourt”), Harry Brittain, John Anderson (“Waverley”), Lincoln Gordon, Dora Gaitskell, Louis Leisler Greig, William Rogers Herod,  John Loder (“Wakehurst”), Margaret Wakehurst, Helen Rogers Reid, Stella Isaacs (“Stella Reading”), Matthew Ridgway, Guy Salisbury-Jones, Milton Katz, Leslie Hollis, John Slessor, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Jr., Ellsworth Bunker, David K.E. Bruce, Robert Daniel Murphy, Henry Herbert (“Porchester”), Edmund Pery (“Limerick”), George Cholmondeley, John H. Ferguson, Edward W. Barrett, Walter J. Donnelly, Julius C. Holmes, Alice Acheson, Roderic Hill, Leolyn Dana Wilgress, and Vernon Willey (“Barnby”) among others. In very good condition. An exceedingly rare and highly desirable collection of signatures.

The largest American embassy in Western Europe, the Embassy of the United States of America in London was founded as the American legation in 1863 and later upgraded to an embassy in 1893. In 1938, the embassy was moved to 1 Grosvenor Square and in the decades following accommodated many U.S. government offices, including the headquarters of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the European headquarters of the United States Navy. The years 1951 and 1952 saw major changes in the United Kingdom. On October 26, 1951, Winston S. Churchill won the general election, regaining (a month before his seventy-seventh birthday) the position of Prime Minister that he lost six years previously, with a majority of seventeen seats. The following year, on February 6, 1952, King George VI died at Sandringham House and was succeeded by his 25-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, who ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II.