...the peace symbol...
A Sign of the Times , by Jena Peterson (an article taken from "LDS Living - online magazine)
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the peace symbol—one of the most recognized symbols in the world.
Designed for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War by Gerald Holtom in 1958, this forked symbol was used as part of the British nuclear disarmament movement. It is a literal combination of semaphoric signals (visual signals with hand-held flags, often used at sea) for the letters N and D, which stands for "Nuclear Disarmament."
The symbol’s first appearance was made among thousands of British anti-nuclear campaigners who set off on a 50-mile march from London's Trafalgar Square to the weapons factory at Aldermaston. By the 1960s it had become synonymous with the anti-war movement, and today appears on buttons, flags, clothing, jewelry, key chains, and just about anything else you can think of.
But the popularity, and its association with the anti-war movement, meant the little design was destined to be attacked as well. It spent some years mocked as a “crow’s foot” or the “footprint of the American Chicken,” suggesting that peace activists were cowards. But for the most part the positive peace sentiments prevailed, carrying the symbol to its unprecedented familiarity even 50 years after its birth.
The drawing was never copyrighted. Gerald Holtom and the anti-nuclear campaign refused to put a price on a symbol and a meaning they said should be free to everyone.
Today the design is an international symbol for peace, and though wars continue and the bomb never was banned, the world’s shot at peace is branded by the most popular uncopyrighted image ever invented.
1 comment:
THAT is very interesting!
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