In which year did the contemporary international peace symbol originate?

The contemporary international symbol for peace (picture) was designed by Gerald Holtom (1914-1985) for the British nuclear disarmament movement. He was an artist and designer who presented his symbol to the ‘Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War’ on February 21, 1958. It was immediately accepted and used for a march from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire on April 4th. His design was adapted by Eric Austen (1922-1999) to ceramic lapel badges. Today, the original design is in the Peace Museum in Bradford, England.

The symbol is a super-imposition of the semaphore signals (telegraphy system conveying information by means of visual signals with hand-held flags) for the letters ‘N’ and ‘D for ‘nuclear disarmament. This observation was reported as early as April 5, 1958 in the ‘Manchester Guardian‘.

In addition to this primary genesis, Holtom cited as inspiration ‘Goya’s Peasant Before the Firing Squad’. He wrote: “I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards, and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing quad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle around it.” The reference is to Goya’s ‘The Third of May 1808’ (1814), although the peasant shown in the painting has his arms stretched upwards, not downwards.

The symbol was adopted by wider disarmament and anti-war movements.