<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 0px; max-width: 600px; width: 600px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 16px;" class="">Gerald Holtom, the Briton who designed the peace symbol, was in “deep despair” when he created it on this day in 1958. </td></tr><tr class=""><td style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 16px;" class="">“I drew myself,” <a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6ofMFdPqrevWWtm9VfHMotdGnctuKk9vdJsfFBsgXmAKhS/0sq+9aFJ4ICepsdGGh6Ovvxo+C3j2aGQ1NbL1O8d&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d®i_id=84243966" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145) !important;" class="">wrote Mr. Holtom</a>, a World War II conscientious objector who was alarmed by the nuclear arms race. “The representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outward and downward in the manner of <a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6pY6SVEwr4lhhpKRE8Dq8/HkWjmGKWJ+79F55B7JBgWZBI2zqc84kdK3k0IqUr1GAtMTRBrZbOdzMi4XssuLHeHFZA+FfVa0EvpYBt5AfQhno0ojhgVCt4vlHYdzTjc5yYjiTiYonkFug==&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d®i_id=84243966" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145) !important;" class="">Goya’s peasant before the firing squad</a>.” </td></tr><tr class=""><td style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 16px;" class=""><img alt="An early sketch of the peace symbol designed by Gerald Holtom, on display at the Imperial War Museum in London." class="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/20/briefing/21briefing-us/21BRIEFING-asia-slide-ZS9M-articleLarge.jpg" style="max-width: 600px; width: 600px; height: auto;"><br class=""><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-size: 13px;" class="">An early sketch of the peace symbol designed by Gerald Holtom, on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.</span><br class=""><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" class="">Yui Mok/PA Wire, via Associated Press</span></td></tr><tr class=""><td style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 16px;" class="">The symbol also combined the semaphores, or <a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=LCk/SDgubSTU1OluwjmWuu5fQb+JUWEXjTvJjRBhyPQ6ebBYIFnRM2Pzq6yoP4psNWEd7hjiqKs=&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d®i_id=84243966" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145) !important;" class="">flag-signaling codes</a>, for the letters “N” and “D,” or “Nuclear Disarmament.” The circle around it represented the earth. </td></tr><tr class=""><td style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 16px;" class="">Later that spring, the symbol appeared on buttons and signs in an antinuclear march to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, a warhead factory in Aldermaston, England. (The march became an annual event.) </td></tr><tr class=""><td style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 16px;" class="">The symbol, which isn’t trademarked, was embraced by the broader antiwar movement and <a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6qM8vGXBV6FRoYMS9JEpLKksMqWzgYpuABpRdEkx2h6yrmF+GU6k7E2W53ZboiNi/dghNfdrEdpW7Km/9aAyTLsaJuTzHiz8T2GDiPaEZFDz7FkmGDCXqwFKH7pilVGwlx3z4zFDQTRHGIIosTAehNV&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d®i_id=84243966" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145) !important;" class="">disparaged by critics</a> as anti-Christian. </td></tr><tr class=""><td style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 16px;" class="">Mr. Holtom is said to have later <a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=InCMR7g4BCLI6Q/jtHWDpIWz37R0GSj8Z3Xq7nH8ODJAJLLUBZ6yRBA1bdOksItpJjREOcfFv9g=&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d®i_id=84243966" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145) !important;" class="">expressed a desire that the symbol be inverted</a> so that it resembled hands reaching to the sky. Such a symbol, in addition to being more celebratory of peace, would also evoke the semaphore for the letter “U” — as in “Unilateral Disarmament.” </td></tr><tr class=""><td style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 16px;" class="">The <a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=4z5Q7LhI+KXAyZcYaGXjYyfrHhN27bxr&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d®i_id=84243966" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145) !important;" class="">Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament</a>, which still uses the symbol as its logo, is taking it on an <a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=4z5Q7LhI+KXAyZcYaGXjY6Yc0uPn4197y13b9tBCb5XCHD1t4cKuAhwHofybDmb3&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d®i_id=84243966" style="color: rgb(50, 104, 145) !important;" class="">anniversary tour</a> around Britain this year.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>