Margaret Thatcher with former President Ronald Reagan. (AP)
Plans are in the works to create a U.S. presidential-styled museum and library in central London to memorialize Margaret Thatcher.
The U.K.-based Conservative Way Forward (CWF) unveiled plans for the permanent memorial to Britain’s former prime minister inspired after the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Santa Barbara, Calif.
The library and museum will feature documents, photographs and Thatcher’s signature items like her suits and handbags. In addition, it will host political training courses based on her core beliefs of free trade and lower taxation, similar to that at the library of her friend and political ally.
Unlike in the U.S., the U.K. has no memorial libraries to its former leaders.
CFW says it hopes to raise $23 million in private funds for the project.
“By May 2009, it had become clear to me that we needed something to protect the legacy of Margaret Thatcher and to teach future generations about her life, values and achievements,” said Donal Blaney, chief executive of Conservative Way Forward, on its blog Conservative Home blog.
Thatcher, Britain's only female prime minister died at the Ritz Hotel in London last week after suffering a stroke. She was 87. Her funeral takes place at St Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday.
Ron Robinson, the president of the Young America’s Foundation, told the U.K.’s Telegraphy that it is “critical that Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is protected for future generations. Like her great friend Ronald Reagan, she knew that freedom was never more than one generation away from extinction.”
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