Our Own Brush with Royalty

As the world celebrates the most highly anticipated union of the year – this morning’s wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton – it might be interesting to look back in history to an earlier time:  the summer of 1970.  Richard M. Nixon was in the White House, temperatures had reached the sultry nineties, miniskirts were popular, and a youthful Prince Charles and his sister, Princess Anne, arrived in Washington, D.C.

Princess Anne and Prince Charles take in Renoir's The Judgement of Paris. On the far left in yellow is Julie Eisenhower. Far right is Marjorie Phillips, then director of the museum.

It was their first trip to the United States, a whirlwind three-day visit for Britain’s royal pair that began on July 16, with America’s first family welcoming them on the South Lawn of the White House.  Prince Charles, a tall, 21-year old heir to the British throne, proclaimed to his greeters that he and his sister, 19-year old Princess Anne, had always longed to come to America. Continue reading