---
title: Keep Calm and Carry On
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-calm-and-carry-on-1939/
description: The third of the Ministry of Information's three 1939 'Home Publicity' posters, designed between 27 June and 6 July 1939 and printed in almost 2.5…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Keep Calm and Carry On](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-calm-and-carry-on-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-calm-and-carry-on-1939.jpg)

# Keep Calm and Carry On

The third of the Ministry of Information's three 1939 'Home Publicity' posters, designed between 27 June and 6 July 1939 and printed in almost 2.5 million copies, but held back for a crisis such as heavy bombing and never issued for general display. The only image is the royal crown, which lends the instruction the authority of the Crown rather than argument or information. This copy survives in an album of posters collected in England between September 1939 and May 1941 by John Belfort Keogh, U.S. vice consul at Bradford.

- **Date:** 1939
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** UK Ministry of Information (Home Publicity series)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [United Kingdom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-kingdom)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Chamberlain Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=chamberlain-government)
- **Leader:** [Neville Chamberlain](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=neville-chamberlain)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Reassure](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=reassure)
- **Themes:** [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front), [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military)
- **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2008676371/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (UK Crown copyright expired; PD-UKGov) UK Ministry of Information, 1939. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LOT 3232, album 'War posters of England (September 1939-May 1941)' from the collection of John Belfort Keogh.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON
```

The only printed element besides the crown emblem; no other text appears on this copy of the poster.

[← 'My Struggle!' by Adolf Hitler, the sculptor (British poster in Arabic)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hitler-sculptor-swastika-arabic-1939/) [Suomen armeijan sotilaat! (Soldiers of the Finnish Army!): Soviet leaflet signed by named Finnish prisoners →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/soviet-leaflet-suomen-armeijan-sotilaat-1939/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)