"Keep Calm And Carry On" was one of three similar posters produced in 1939, but the first two were so unpopular that Keep Calm never made it into circulation. Maria Bustillos tells the story of its recent rise to fame: in 2000, Stuart Manley, the owner of Barter Books in Northumberland, found a folded poster at the bottom of a box of books he had purchased at auction:
Mary Manley, Stuart's wife and partner in the shop, took a liking to the poster. It was
framed and displayed behind the till. Right away people started trying to buy it off them: Not For Sale, they were told. But the demand wore the Manleys down, and eventually they ordered 500 reproductions through a local print shop. This was in 2001. … Stuart Manley could quite easily have filed for trademark protection back then, but he didn't. And when other businesses began selling Keep Calm products, mugs and beer mats and mouse pads and whatnot, he didn't go after any of them, though he did ask to be credited for his discovery by the many manufacturers who later made use of it.
The Dish 