Keep Calm and Carry On

Norton Museum of Art

Keep Calm and Carry On: World War II and the British Home Front, 1938-1951 explored the impressive gamut of England’s home-front efforts just before, during, and after the war years 1939-1945. While millions of British men and women served in the military overseas, England’s entire creative class mobilized to win the war on the home front. Drawings, posters, photographs, film, furniture, fashion, and more illustrated how they did so. Included were examples of how designers created fashions and furnishings to save on essential wartime materials—and injected style and beauty into the harsh realities of wartime life—and how graphic artists and filmmakers produced inspirational work that shaped the nation’s behavior and attitudes, convincing the country, as the era’s most famous slogan urged, to “Keep calm and carry on.” The exhibition was organized into three primary sections: “Design for Fashion and Beauty,” “Design for Shelter and Protection,” and “Design for Propaganda and Entertainment.”

Curator: Donald Albrecht

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