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Peace

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Peace Symbol

 

The symbol now known internationally as the "peace symbol" or "peace sign", was created in 1958 as a symbol for Britain's campaign for nuclear disarmament. It went on to be widely adopted in the American anti-war movement in the 1960s and was re-interpreted as generically representing world peace. It was also used by activists opposing nuclear power in the 1980s,[citation needed] although the Smiling Sun image () ["Nuclear power? No thanks!]" predominated.

 

Origin

 

The symbol was designed by Gerald Holtom (1914–1985), who presented it to Direct Action Committee on 21 February 1958. It was "immediately accepted" as a symbol for the movement and used for a march from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire on 4 April. Holtom's design was adapted by Eric Austen (1922–1999) to ceramic lapel badges. The original design is in the Peace Museum in Bradford, England.

 

The symbol is a super-imposition of the flag semaphore for the characters "N" and "D", taken to stand for "nuclear disarmament". This observation was made as early as 5 April 1958 in the Manchester Guardian. In addition to this primary genesis, Holtom additionally cited as inspiration Francisco

Goya's painting The Third of May 1808 :

 

I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it.

 

Ken Kolsbun, a correspondent of Holtom's, says that the designer came to regret the symbolism of despair, as he felt that peace was something to be celebrated and wanted the symbol to be inverted. Eric Austen is said to have "discovered that the 'gesture of despair' motif had long been associated with 'the death of man', and the circle with 'the unborn child'".

 

The symbol became the badge of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and wearing it became a sign of support for the campaign that argued for British unilateral nuclear disarmament. An account of CND's early history described the image as "a visual adhesive to bind the [Aldermaston] March and later the whole Campaign together ... probably the most powerful, memorable and adaptable image ever designed for a secular cause".

 

Source: Peace symbols | Wikipedia

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Uploaded on November 17, 2024
Taken on May 17, 2014