 The
"Peace Sign" has become a universally recognized
symbol as a call for peace and against war. Historically there have
been other symbolic representations of peace signs and
symbols, but the one most prolific in American culture
is this peace sign, based on Gerard Holtom's original design.
Holtom, a peace activist for nuclear disarmament in
Britain in the 1950's, superimposed the semaphore
symbols for the letters "N" and "D", representing
Nuclear Disarmament, and surrounded the symbol in a
circle, resulting in the "Peace Sign". By the late
1960's and early 1970's, the sign took on the meaning
for peace in other contexts, most notably by those
calling for peace during the height of the Vietnam War.
The practice of placing
the peace sign in the canton of the American Flag also
dates to Vietnam War era and it continues today.
This particular example is especially rare on several
counts. First, it dates to the early 1970's and is
an original peace flag from the Vietnam Era. It is
one of just a small handful of known examples that
consists of sewn stars on the canton, rather than a
solid printed peace sign manufactured with the flag.
This flag actually began as a 50 star flag, and the
maker of the flag actually removed the 50 stars from
each side and
rearranged 25 on each side to form the peace sign, hand sewing the
stars back onto the flag. The time and effort
required to repurpose a standard American flag into a
peace flag configuration shows the determination and
commitment of the maker to their cause. Although
the specific history of the flag is lost, the previous
owner of the flag indicated that it was given to a
Vietnam veteran in the early 1970's. It is a rare
surviving of an early original example of the type, hand
made into its current form at the height of the Vietnam
War peace movement in America. |
