I’ve been talking to the New York Times, as Rob Walker’s Consumed Column will be discussing the Keep Calm and Carry On poster on 12th July (I’ll have a link once I know), and in going through the Fact Checking today, we were talking about the numbers of posters produced. Keep Calm and Carry On was produced alongside ‘Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution’ and ‘Your Freedom is in Peril: Fight for it Now’. In my thesis, when only the ‘Your Courage’ poster was really known, there was some reference to the ‘Keep Calm’ poster, but it’s only truly come into the public consciousness late 2008 as the recession truly started to bite (although Barter Books had been producing the design for 10 years), although more of the Keep Calm posters were produced than any of the other 2… and I wonder how many of them now exist, as they will now be worth much more than they used to be!
By 23 August the proportions to be printed were decided. The percentages were: ‘Freedom is in Peril’ (for remote areas), 12%; ‘Keep Calm and Carry on’, 65%; and ‘Your Courage, etc.’, 23%.
Demand for Printing Slip for HMSO, 31/8/39 for MOI. ‘Keep Calm’, ‘Your Courage’ and ‘Freedom is in Peril’, from The National Archives, INF 1/226
| Quantity | Description | ‘Keep Calm’ |
| 1,800 | 20’ x 10’ | |
| 2,100 | 13’4 x 10’ | |
| 11,000 | 6’8 x 10’ | |
| 1,000 | 6’8 x 5’ | Broadside |
| 2,500 | 60” x 40” | Upright |
| 9,000 | 60” x 40” | Broadside |
| 875 | 30” x 40” | Broadside |
| 700 | 40” x 25” | |
| 496,500 | 30” x 20” | |
| 427,600 | 20” x 15” | Upright |
| 1,486,000 | 15” x 10” | Upright |
| 8,000 | 22” x 22” |
| Quantity | Description | Your Courage… |
| 950 | 20’ x 10’ | |
| 1,250 | 13’4 x 10’ | |
| 5,600 | 6’8 x 10’ | |
| 2,500 | 6’8 x 5’ | Broadside |
| 3,750 | 60” x 40” | Upright |
| 4,500 | 60” x 40” | Broadside |
| 375 | 30” x 40” | Broadside |
| 300 | 40” x 25” | |
| 137,500 | 30” x 20” | |
| 130,000 | 20” x 15” | Upright |
| 550,000 | 15” x 10” | Upright |
| Quantity | Description | Freedom is in Peril |
| 200 | 20’ x 10’ | |
| 300 | 13’4 x 10’ | |
| 2,500 | 6’8 x 10’ | |
| 1,750 | 6’8 x 5’ | |
| 3,500 | 60” x 40” | Upright |
| 66,000 | 30” x 20” | |
| 62,400 | 20” x 15” | Upright |
| 264,000 | 15” x 10” | Upright |
Mass Communications Academic, @MMUBS. British Home Front Propaganda posters as researched for a PhD completed 2004. In 1997, unwittingly wrote the first history of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, which she now follows with interest.
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