The History of a Poster
In the Spring of 1939, with war against Germany all but inevitable, the British Government’s Ministry of Information commissioned a series of propaganda posters to be distributed throughout the country at the onset of hostilities.
A similar poster, of which around 600,000 were issued, carried the slogan ‘Freedom is in Peril’.
But the third design, of which over 2.5 million posters were printed, simply read ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’.
The first two designs were distributed in September 1939 and immediately began to appear in shop windows, on railway platforms, and on advertising hoardings up and down the country.
But the ‘Keep Calm’ posters were held in reserve, intended for use only in times of crisis or invasion. Although some may have found there way onto Government office walls, the poster was never officially issued and so remained virtually unseen by the public – unseen, that is, until a copy turned up more than fifty years later in a box of dusty old books bought in auction.
all of these posters can be bought from here.
