Button: Holiday Wreath shaped like a peace symbol
$2.00 $1.00 On Sale!
PSW
A classic from the 1960's, this design was first given to us by Vic Schumacher, a lifelong peace activist (1922-1981) from Detroit, Michigan. Vic was a longtime member of the War Resisters League. He wanted to see this version of the peace symbol back in print.
We also have this button graphic on 1.5" round self-stick labels that can be put on postcards, notecards, holiday cards. They are available on a sheet of ten: product code: SL-PSW-10 on sale for $1.50; also in a set of 100: (product code: SL-PSW-100 on sale for $8.95
The peace sign was originally commissioned by the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (C.N.D.) and created by artist Gerald Holtom. Completed on February 21, 1958, it was first used publicly during the Easter Week March from London to the Atomic Weapons Research facility at Aldermaston, England. The symbol itself is a combination of the semaphor signals for the letters "N" and "D", standing for "Nuclear Disarmament." In the semaphor sugnal system, the letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down "V," with their arm outstetched at about a 45 degree angle from their body. The letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed staright up and the other pointed straight down. These two signals superimpoosed over each other form the shape of the peace symbol.
A conscientious objector to war, who had worked on a farm in Norfolk, England during the Second World War, Holtom later recounted to Hugh Brock, editor of C.N.D.'s publication, Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in greater depth:
"I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representation of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya''s peasant befire the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it."
The peace symbol flag first became known in the U.S. later in 1958 when Albert Bigelow, a pacifist protester, sailed his small boat outfitted with the C.N/D. banner, into the vicinity of a nuclear bomb test site. The opeace symbol button was imported into the U.S. in 1960 by Philip Altbach, a freshman at the University of Chicago, who traveled to England to meet with British peace groups as a delegate for the Student Peace Union (S.P.U.). Altbach purchased a bag of the peace symbol buttons while in England, and brought them back to Chicago, where he convinced the S.P.U. to reprint the button and adopt it as its symbol. Over the next four years S.P.U. reprinted and sold thousands of the buttons on college campuses throughout the U.S.
Since then, scores of versions of the peace symbol have been printed and reprinted, with print runs going into hundreds of millions during the next forty-five years by organizations the world over. It's graphic power derives from its complete simplicity: anyone can draw it. (when drawing it, always extend the vertical line from the top of the circle to the bottom, so it doesn't look like the Mercedes-Benz company trademark - which it is completely unrelated to. The symbol is not copyrighted nor owned by anyone or organization. In computer unicode the peace symbol is U+262E: ☮ However, many browsers will not have a font that can display it.
Over the years, beginning during the polarized era of the American War in Vietnam (1961-1975), the ultra-conservative, opro-war John Birch Society, concocted a disinformation program in the U.S. falsely claiming the peace sign to be a satanic, anti-Christ symbol. This was a well-organised effort to defame and marginalise the growing use and widespread popularity of the symbol. Still today, we hear from customers who have only heard the false story put forth by the Birch Society through churches in the U.S. during the Vietnam War. The power of myth can be enduring. Finally, a book with the detailed history of the true origin of the peace symbol was published by the National Geographic Society, in 2008 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the peace symbol. We carry the book. You may order the book through us. (see our Books for Teaching section of this website).
