Barter Books - Keep Calm and Carry On

In spring 2000, a neglected British World War II propaganda poster was uncovered in a dusty box at Barter Books, a second-hand bookstore located within a former Victorian railway station in Alnwick, Northumberland. Featuring a striking red background and a straightforward message beneath a Tudor crown, Keep Calm and Carry On has since resonated beyond its wartime origins, igniting a widespread design movement and becoming one of the most iconic and adapted cultural slogans of the 21st century.

Keep Calm and Carry On was a motivational poster created by the UK Government in 1939 to boost public morale in anticipation of mass air raids during World War II. Although 2.45 million copies were printed and the Blitz occurred, the poster was seldom displayed and remained largely unknown until a copy surfaced at Barter Books, a bookshop in Alnwick, in 2000. Since then, it has been reissued by various private firms and adopted as a decorative motif for numerous products.