Keep Calm and Carry On

Why it works

One of Britain's best-known posters was barely seen in the war it was made for. In 1939 the Ministry of Information prepared three matching morale posters: white capitals and the King's crown on plain red. "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory" and "Freedom Is in Peril" were displayed; "Keep Calm and Carry On" was held back for a national catastrophe that never came. Copies ran into the millions, but it was never officially put up and most are thought to have been pulped. In 2000 the bookseller Stuart Manley found a folded copy in a box of books bought at auction, framed it in Barter Books in Alnwick and, when customers kept asking, began selling reproductions. By 2009 the BBC reported about 1,000 orders a month and the design on mugs and T-shirts. The Imperial War Museums credits its expired Crown copyright with helping it spread. It is studied as a lesson in tone of voice, and in a message finding its audience six decades late.