"KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" LONDON: HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE (HMSO), AUGUST TO SEPTEMBER, 1939,

Footnotes

The "Keep Calm" poster has, over the past decade, become the classic poster of Wartime Britain. It is not known exactly how many survive. This is a median format sized example while most of the ones that have surfaced thus far have been the window pane small sized versions. In early April 1939, six months before the Declaration of War in September, the Ministry of Information (MOI) started forming a policy on posters to be issued in times of National crisis. The MOI and HMSO, working closely together drew up poster designs between June and July 1939, the aim to produce simple artwork for posters to help the population at the time of forthcoming national crisis which would boost the morale of the general public. Eventually three 'Home Publicity' designs were chosen and printing of these posters started on 23 August 1939. Two of the designs "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will bring us Victory" and "Freedom is in Peril, Defend it with all your might" were printed and distributed in their millions and released to be put on public notice boards, stations, and other buildings, even huge 50 sheet versions were put on large billboards. The "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster was held back for times of severe stress, perhaps an invasion or bombing campaign. It is said that 2.5 million of these posters were printed between August and September 1939, but questions were raised in the press and in government about the content and style of the campaign, so the "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters were not officially released en masse and the large majority were put into store. Records are incomplete but it is believed the stock was pulped in April 1940 as part of a paper salvage campaign. It is documented that a few were released and posted, and there are examples in the Imperial War Museum, London and in the British National Archives. Barter Books in Alnwick in 2000 found an example of the median size poster, a small cache of five were then discovered in the Midlands circa 2000 by a private collector and a further collection of 15 were found in Cupar, Fife Scotland, from the family of a veteran of the Royal Observer Corps, as seen on the BBC programme The Antiques Roadshow.