12/10/2025
Keep Calm and Carry On was a motivational poster produced by the Government of the United Kingdom in 1939 in preparation for World War II.
The poster was intended to raise the morale of the British public, threatened with widely predicted mass air attacks on major cities.
Although 2.45 million copies were printed, and the Blitz did in fact take place, the poster was only rarely publicly displayed and was little known until a copy was rediscovered in 2000 at Barter Books, a bookshop in Alnwick.
It has since been re-issued by a number of private companies, and has been used as the decorative theme for a range of products.
Evocative of the Victorian belief in British stoicism – the "stiff upper lip", self-discipline, fortitude, and remaining calm in adversity – the poster has become recognised around the world.
It was thought that only two original copies survived until a collection of approximately 15 was brought into the Antiques Roadshow in 2012 by the daughter of an ex-Royal Observer Corps member.
A few further examples have come to light since.
During 1938, newspapers were sold with a "Keep Calm and Dig" poster.
The Keep Calm and Carry On poster was designed by the Ministry of Information from 27 June to 6 July 1939.
It was produced as one of three "Home Publicity" posters (the others read "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory" and "Freedom Is in Peril / Defend It With All Your Might").
Each poster showed the slogan under a representation of a Tudor Crown (a symbol of the state).
Keep Calm was intended to be distributed to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster, such as mass bombing of major cities using high explosives and poison gas, which was widely expected within hours of an outbreak of war.
