Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Peace Symbol - 50 years old



Don't ask me how I missed this but maybe you did too. Last year, 2008 was the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Symbol.

We did know that all of a sudden we have been selling LOTS of peace symbol jewelry and anything else that has the symbol on it.

We're glad to see it back, growing up in the 60s of course it was everywhere.

Do you remember that the symbol 50 years ago was used to protest the atomic bomb and to campaign for nuclear disarmament?

Gerald Holtom was the artist and textile designer who created it.

"A conscientious objector during World War II, he was driven to the nuclear disarmament campaign, he said, by a feeling of despair. " (from CBS News - see link below to read the article).

He based the design on the Naval sign language of semaphore, matching the 'N' for nuclear & a straight up-and-down 'D' for 'Disarmament,' with a circle around it. "That's the symbol, very simple and straightforward," Randle recalled.

"The 'n' and 'd' of nuclear disarmament were its source, but its meaning quickly embraced a bigger cause: as a symbol for protest in the broadest sense, more specifically as a sign for peace.

An international brand that became as familiar as a stop sign - from grim and gritty, to groovy, like a universal trademark, according to design consultant Richard Williams. "

And because Gerald Holtom and the anti-nuclear campaign deliberately didn't copyright the symbol, no one owns it - or, perhaps everyone does.

To read this whole article go to CBS News.

In a previous post I showed the new peace soap we just got in - that smells WONDERFUL!! Peace soap.

And we have peace sign jewelry in different price ranges as shown in the photo above with more coming in.

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