What does "keep calm and carry on" mean?

Keep Calm and Carry On (Keep Calm and Carry On) is a propaganda poster produced by the British government at the beginning of World War II in 1939. It was originally planned to respond to the Nazi occupation of Britain. Boost the morale of the people. This poster was initially unknown due to its limited circulation. In 2000, it was discovered and printed and distributed by many businesses as a decorative theme for products. As of 2012, 15 posters printed that year have been collected.

This poster was originally produced by the British Ministry of Information in the early days of World War II to boost the morale of the British public when war came. At that time, more than 2.5 million copies were printed. As this poster was expected to be used after the Nazis occupied Britain, the number of actual distribution of this poster was very limited.

This poster is one in a series of three posters, the other two being "Freedom Is In Peril. Defend It With All Your Might" (Freedom is under threat, do what you can to defend it) (***400,000 printed) and "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory" (***800,000 printed) open). The two posters were widely printed as the Ministry of Information anticipated low public morale in the first weeks of the war.

The plan to print the posters began in April 1939. The poster design was finalized in June and printed in August. It was expected to be put into use immediately within 24 hours of the outbreak of war. The design wanted to have a unified style for the Ministry of Information, with a font that was easy to recognize and to make people feel that the message came from the king, so an image of a Tudor crown was placed at the top of the poster. The poster text was conceived by public officials to reflect "the personal responsibility of every citizen" and is direct and easy to understand. Better known during the war are the "Your Courage" posters from the same series, the first posters produced by the British Ministry of Information.

In 2000, a "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster was discovered in Barter Books, a second-hand bookstore in Alnwick, Northumberland, England. Under British copyright law, the poster has entered the public domain after 50 years as a government-produced work of art. The bookstore's owners, Stuart and Mary Manley, therefore made multiple copies of the poster at the request of their customers. The pattern subsequently became popular on retail merchandise such as clothing, teacups, and doormats, and also spawned many derivative works of the poster.

The Economist believes that this nostalgic poster reflects the typical British character. The reason for its popularity is that it directly reflects the image of the British imagined by the people: low-key, brave and slightly rigid, able to The character who makes tea as usual during the bombing. This poster also became popular during the 2007 financial crisis. The poster is displayed in the staff rooms of many British hospitals, and its slogan has been adopted as an unofficial slogan by British nurses. The poster is also displayed in the Prime Minister's Strategy Department at No. 10 Downing Street and in the Office of the Lord Chamberlain at Buckingham Palace. The Manleys sold 41,000 copies of the poster between 2001 and 2009.