[Peace-discuss] 60 years ago...

[C G Estabrook]

Gerald Holtom, the Briton who designed the peace symbol, was in “deep despair” when he created it on this day in 1958. 
“I drew myself,” wrote Mr. Holtom <http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6ofMFdPqrevWWtm9VfHMotdGnctuKk9vdJsfFBsgXmAKhS/0sq+9aFJ4ICepsdGGh6Ovvxo+C3j2aGQ1NbL1O8d&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d&regi_id=84243966>, 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 Goya’s peasant before the firing squad <http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6pY6SVEwr4lhhpKRE8Dq8/HkWjmGKWJ+79F55B7JBgWZBI2zqc84kdK3k0IqUr1GAtMTRBrZbOdzMi4XssuLHeHFZA+FfVa0EvpYBt5AfQhno0ojhgVCt4vlHYdzTjc5yYjiTiYonkFug==&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d&regi_id=84243966>.” 

An early sketch of the peace symbol designed by Gerald Holtom, on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.
Yui Mok/PA Wire, via Associated Press
The symbol also combined the semaphores, or flag-signaling codes <http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=LCk/SDgubSTU1OluwjmWuu5fQb+JUWEXjTvJjRBhyPQ6ebBYIFnRM2Pzq6yoP4psNWEd7hjiqKs=&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d&regi_id=84243966>, for the letters “N” and “D,” or “Nuclear Disarmament.” The circle around it represented the earth. 
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.) 
The symbol, which isn’t trademarked, was embraced by the broader antiwar movement and disparaged by critics <http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6qM8vGXBV6FRoYMS9JEpLKksMqWzgYpuABpRdEkx2h6yrmF+GU6k7E2W53ZboiNi/dghNfdrEdpW7Km/9aAyTLsaJuTzHiz8T2GDiPaEZFDz7FkmGDCXqwFKH7pilVGwlx3z4zFDQTRHGIIosTAehNV&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d&regi_id=84243966> as anti-Christian. 
Mr. Holtom is said to have later expressed a desire that the symbol be inverted <http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=InCMR7g4BCLI6Q/jtHWDpIWz37R0GSj8Z3Xq7nH8ODJAJLLUBZ6yRBA1bdOksItpJjREOcfFv9g=&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d&regi_id=84243966> 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.” 
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament <http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=4z5Q7LhI+KXAyZcYaGXjYyfrHhN27bxr&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d&regi_id=84243966>, which still uses the symbol as its logo, is taking it on an anniversary tour <http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=4z5Q7LhI+KXAyZcYaGXjY6Yc0uPn4197y13b9tBCb5XCHD1t4cKuAhwHofybDmb3&campaign_id=8100&instance_id=112013&segment_id=121170&user_id=e1fa1911ec9352d32131ad3c1c7ae93d&regi_id=84243966> around Britain this year.

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