Tag: credit crunch

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History

Barter Books: The Home of the Original “Keep Calm and Carry On” Poster

Barter BooksI know people say I should be cashing in on the Keep Calm and Carry On craze, and I will be giving a couple of conference papers related to the subject this summer (and I’m planning on creating a more general-audience friendly paper too, so let me know if you’re be interested in that), but I’m more than happy to send all customers to Barter Books, who own one of only 2 original copies of this poster known to be in existence (if you know of another one, I’d be interested to know, although my budget wouldn’t stretch to buying one – currently saving up for the apron!), so they, and the owner of the other poster (I’m sure I’ve seen it at the IWM/National Archives, so maybe there’s more than 2), then own the copyright to those images (if not to the poster itself, which is now publicly available)!

Barter Books sell:

  • Reproduction Posters
  • T-Shirts
  • Aprons & Tea Towels
  • Mugs & Mouse-Mats
  • Postcards, Book, Rubber Stamp (Note: This is the book for which I will shortly be hosting a competition, they’ll be 10 copies to win)

Read more in Journalive.co.uk (February 2009)

Thanks to Barter Books for acknowledging that their historical material comes from my PhD, actually, not my PhD, my undergraduate thesis. I have more information, which as I find it, will appear on this blog! I’m not affiliated with Barter Books, but we share a true interest in this poster! I’ve posted this in response to my Twitter feed, where I’d commented that this was the original home, and had a response that @ironyboy had visited the bookshop recently and had thought “pah, copycats”, so, just to clarify… the originators of the craze!

Categories
History

Imperial War Museum recruits Mrs Sew and Sew

Mrs Sew and Sew on Twitter Mrs Sew and Sew Engages with New Technology
 The other week I referred to the Imperial War Museum’s information ‘Top Tips for Tough Times‘, using advice from the 1940s to those of us stuck in the noughties recession. What they didn’t mention there (a trick missed, I feel), was that they had also set up a blog, and a Twitter feed… a real innovative use of modern technology to bring out relevant information from the 1940s. Anyone who thought my PhD was irrelevant… clearly wrong!  And having tracked down a number of public information shorts to use at conferences, the IWM is now uploading a number of great films to YouTube ! Listen to the creative agency: The Team talk about their work.

I love the start of this blog:

“Hello m’ dears!

Mrs Sew&Sew here, reporting from the home front in 1943! The nice people at the Imperial War Museum (yes, it’s even around in our day) have given me a special typewriter, so I can send you telegrams from here. Don’t worry, we’ve set it up so your replies get sent through to me as well, so feel free to have a chat!…. I’ve heard there’s some kind of problem with the banks in 2009, so maybe some of these ideas will come in handy there too. Do let me know if you have any great ideas I can pass onto my neighbours. Or even if they’re not relevant in my time, let me know anyway, and I’ll pass them back to all the lovely people in your time.”

 

Advertiser’s Weekly, 4th April 1944, p.154 notes…
 W.S.Crawford, Ltd invented the figure in order to humanise the ‘make-do-and-mend’ campaign. Made first appearance in the press on May 15, and will feature in forthcoming displays and posters. “Mrs Sew-and-Sew is a pleasant figure, rather like a ventriloquist’s dummy, with a cherubic smile. A wooden figure of her will be placed at the door of advice centres, inviting people to come in, and she will also appear in window displays and exhibitions. Copy for the first advert describes her as a ‘designing woman’. The campaign will then invite women to identify themselves with her domestic habits, and to follow her example in overcoming household difficulties.” 

British Library

Keep Calm and Carry On
A beautifully detailed entry by owentroy,  including all of the new police (Keep Calm inspired) posters… which I keep spotting when I don’t have a camera to hand!  And the slogan has become so famous (in a way it never was in the Second World War), that it now has its own Wikipedia entry, and had been seen around Westminster, and compared to the anti-terrorism posters. See how many crazy variations have been created, all collated together on Flicrk!

Thesis is listed at the British Library

My thesis, available since June 2004 in the Library and RKE Centre at the University of Winchester, at the Imperial War Museum, and at the Mass Observation Archives, was requested by the British Library earlier this year for digitisation (they should have asked me, I have it on CD!), so can be seen on the computers at the British Library, St Pancras. Still surprised my thesis hasn’t been picked up more by the press, but then I’ve been abroad for most of the past 2 years, and only now getting back to grips with my research and looking at ways of publishing it…  although even whilst travelling I managed to complete a chapter for the London Transport Museum, and pre-trip wrote an article for the Second World War Experience Centre.
Categories
History

Keep Calm and Carry On Keeps On

Keep Calm and Carry OnI’ve been keeping a tag on news stories on the resurgence of the Keep Calm and Carry On campaign over the past couple of weeks, and it continues to turn up regularly on the daily digest in a series of bizarre guises, often without reference to its origins, by comics, estate agents, lawyers, retailers, those preparing for weddings, backing for sports teams. Try a search on Etsy, and many different products come back,  some subverted (or recycled; take 2)! It’s being used as a form of decoration: “it’s so hard to decide on a colour”, and turns up in a number of blogs, e.g.: 1, 2, 3… and Kitchener gets a look in. It’s now been graffitied onto walls, and the Imperial War Museum is providing “Top Tips for Tough Times“, inspired by the posters. I don’t want to link to the BNP, but they’re using it also now “to symbolise the defiance of British people as they stagger under the greatest immigration invasion of all times and a crushing economic crisis brought on by the corrupt mainstream politicians.”

You have the right to remain silent (Winchester)We'd like to give youYou Have the Right Not To Remain Silent
En route to work this morning I spotted a new police poster “you have the right not to remain silent” which reminded me of “Keep Calm and Carry On”… I didn’t think I’d be the only one to make the connection, and of course I wasn’t, here’s a taste of what Carl Morris had to say a couple of days ago (along with a photo of the poster):

Unintended messages
You may have seen the slogan “Keep Calm And Carry On” on posters and t-shirts recently. It’s a poster design from the archives of World War II, when invasion of these islands was expected. It’s now the direct inspiration for this new police campaign. The original has grown in popularity because it’s a quaint relic of a bygone era which has seen its message of stoic British resolve reapplied now. It’s all very tongue in cheek. By using this format, the Home Office may be seeking to be trendy – but they just end up co-opting aspects of what the message meant then and means now. The original was simply a propaganda poster. Draw your own conclusion from that.