Peace Symbol Turns 50 This Year

The peace symbol turned 50 years old this year. It began as a symbol for the nuclear disarmament movement in England and became an iconic symbol of a generation. Not to be confused with the peace sign (that is the one done with the fingers), the peace symbol is the circle with the chicken track inside it.

In 1958 the National council for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Tests changed its name to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and was ready to mobilize its members and start marching against nuclear issues in Great Britain. A textile designer, Gerald Holtom felt strongly about the CNDs mission. Aware that there would be a march soon he created a symbol for the marchers to carry, to symbolize their objective. Originally he wanted to base the design on the Christian cross but met with opposition from church leaders in Great Britain. Putting his creative mind to work he came across the Navy's semaphore chart and how the letters N and D were signaled. N was a figure standing tall with his arms held down at a 45 degree angle; D was the figure standing tall with one arm held vertically up, the other down. The Nuclear Disarmament symbol was born and accepted by the CND.

The symbol may have first appeared in the United States on a Committee for Nonviolent Action (CVNA) circular in Connecticut in 1960. After that it spread across Europe and America through its use at a number of nuclear oriented protests, marches and events. The hippies adopted it, soldiers in Vietnam wore it under their uniform shirts and displayed it on their helmets. The meaning changed from nuclear disarmament to a desire for world peace. Some have called it a protest symbol.

In 1970 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declared that no one owned the rights to the peace symbol; it was free for anyone's use. That released the symbol into the public domain. In Peace: The Biography of a Symbol, Ken Kolsbun and Michael S. Sweeney remind us that even the Lucky Strike cigarette company tried to use the peace symbol to spur more interest in their product by putting it on their packs. It didn't work.