[CHURCHILL]--MONORAIL | visitors' book signed by Churchill and others, 1910-11

MONORAIL--BRENNAN, LOUIS

VISITORS' BOOK FOR THE GYRO MONORAIL AT THE JAPAN-BRITISH EXHIBITION OF 1910

containing c.60 signatures including 13 signed during a visit by the Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, and members of his cabinet on 4 November 1910, including WINSTON CHURCHILL and DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, also members of their family such as Raymond and Violet Asquith, and Clementine and Gwendoline Churchill, other names include Louis Brennan (inventor of the monorail), and Hermes de Fonseca, President of Brazil, 5 pages of entries at the White City Exhibition dated from 16 May 1910 to 18 February 1911 with one page of subsequent entries following the monorail's removal to Brennan's home in Gillingham, Kent, 20-22 July 1911, altogether 7 pages, plus blanks, oblong folio, dark blue roan with upper cover lettered in gilt ("Visitors' Book")

[with:] six press photographs of the Brennan monorail, four with copyright stamp of Topical Press, four with pencil captions, various sizes from 165 x 215mm to 120 x 165mm, fraying and tears at edges with some loss

[also with:] Printed menu for the Farewell Dinner for Brig.-Gnl J.G. Weir of the RAF, 6 March 1919, signed by 17 attendees

The Japan-British Exhibition of 1910 was a celebration of Japanese culture and manufacturing designed to cement the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. It took place in White City - the site of the 1908 Summer Olympics - and was attended by more than 8.3m people. Visitors could take a circuit around White City on a gyro monorail designed by Louis Brennan. The monorail won the exhibition's Grand Prize and the enthusiastic approval of Churchill, then Home Secretary, who invited Asquith and other members of the Cabinet to take a ride. This excitement in the monorail did not translate into further investment, however, and only two vehicles were ever built.

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