New York City will get a royal visit this Friday, when Prince William and Duchess Kate Middletown arrive for a three-day visit. They’ll be staying at the historic Carlyle Hotel (hopefully grabbing a drink below the Madeleine murals at Bemelmans Bar), visiting the 9/11 Memorial and catching a Knicks game at Barclays Center. In honor of the upcoming visit, we’re looking back at royal visit to NYC in the past. The first member of the British Royal family to visit the United States was King Edward VII during his 1860 tour of North America as Prince:
Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, at the West Point Military Academy with General Douglas MacArthur. Image via Getty Images
Next to visit was his son Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales, who made it to New York in 1919 and again during his second visit to the US in 1924. He spent a large part of his visit drinking and dancing, and many Americans hoped to woo the young Prince and become his American bride.
Edward VIII later returned to New York as Duke of Windsor with his wife in 1964 to attend the World’s Fair in Queens.
George VI was invited by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to visit the States in 1939. Before him, no reigning British monarch had visited the country since the United States had declared independence in 1776. This meeting in Hyde Park, New York between FDR and George VI came to be known as the “hot dog summit.”
In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II came to New York on an official visit with the Duke of Edinburgh:
During the 1957 visit, the Queen, with the Duke of Edinburgh, were awed by the skyscrapers of New York City. Here, they are pictured viewing the city from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building:
The Queen returned to New York in 1976, again accompanied by Prince Phillip. This time, less awed by the skyline and city life, the Queen received a bank rent of 279 peppercorns that had been owed to the crown way back when. The historical reenactment ceremony took place at Trinity Church, where there is now a plaque recalling the event.
In 2005, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, visited a memorial at Ground Zero, placing flowers in honor of the deceased. Behind her, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales.
Will and Kate, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will also be attending diplomatic meetings and charitable events in their busy schedule. Kate will visit the Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem with the wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, William will go to an event in the Empire State Building and both will have a dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art–maybe some one will brief them on the secrets of the museum before they go!
