Skip over main navigation
  • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
The Peace Museum
  • Search
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
Book event Donate
Menu
  • About
    • About us
    • Our team
    • Partners and Funders
    • Testimonials
    • Jobs
  • Latest News
  • What's On
    • Our Exhibitions
    • Events
    • Past Projects
  • Visit Us
    • How to find us
    • Access
  • Education
    • School Programme
    • Choices
  • Collection
    • Our Collection
    • Donate an Object
    • Blogs
  • Support Us
  • Peace & Pandemic
  • Badges of Protest
  • Admin
    • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
  • Badges of Protest

Badges of Protest

Badges have always been used to make a statement, and hold an important place in the history of peaceful protest. Small and easy to produce in large numbers, they’ve adorned the jackets and bags of protestors for many years. It’s no wonder, then, that we have almost 2000 badges in our collection at The Peace Museum!

Making a statement

Protest badges can take many forms, and they can be designed in different ways to get across their message. One format that we see repeated a lot across the badges in our collection is [group name] against the bomb; these badges are linked to The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

These ‘badges against the bomb’ show the variety of different groups that stand against ‘the bomb’, which here means nuclear weapons more broadly. They often feature hand-drawn illustrations to represent the group they are referring to, for instance ‘Dog Lovers’, ‘Super Grans’ and ‘Ageing Hippies’. As with many badges, they tell the world something about the wearer’s identity as well as the cause they’re protesting for. These badges below are examples:

©Eva Herzog

Peace Symbols

Sometimes badges don’t have any words on them at all, relying instead on symbols to show the cause they represent. A good example of this is these original CND badges from 1958, which feature the logo design by Gerald Holton. As it was never placed under copyright, the CND symbol has been reproduced by people all over the world, and used to call for peace.

©The Austen Family 

You can learn more about these badges through our digital collections site here: CND Badges (peacemuseumcollection.org.uk)

Other symbols have also been used throughout history to represent peace and peace movements, including the dove, which features in the logo for our museum! Doves have been used to symbolise peace in many different cultures, but the use of the dove as a peace symbol is often linked to the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, in which a dove was the animal which found land, returning to the ark with an olive branch in its beak. We have many badges in our collection featuring doves, including these:

 ©Eva Herzog

Learn more about our badges

As part of this project, two of our volunteers here at the museum have written blog posts highlighting some of their favourite badges from the collection, and explaining their significance. You can read the first of these blog posts, written by Emilia Bazydlo, now by clicking here.

Badge of Protest Workshops

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Greenham Common Peace camp, The Peace Museum worked with artist Layla Khoo in 2021, inviting members of the public to Artworks in Halifax to come and make their own protest badges. These events ran alongside Calder Valley CND’s ‘Our Greenham’ exhibition, which put the Greenham women’s peace camp into the context of the wider struggle against nuclear weapons, and featured several objects from The Peace Museum’s collection.

These workshops were also run by Layla in response publication of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in 2021, which brought issues around the right to protest to the forefront of debate. In the UK protest has been used throughout history to allow underrepresented voices to be heard, from the suffragette’s movement to the Greenham Common protest. In the last year spotlight has been placed on protest, with the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd. Women’s safety at peaceful protests has also been in the spotlight following the police’s handling of the vigil held in memory of Sarah Everard who was murdered whilst walking home. These themes, and many more, acted as inspiration for the new badges created at the workshops.

Watch the video below to see some of the badges made at the workshops, and the different issues that they represent:

With thanks to ‘AIM Tackling Inequality Hallmarks Grant Award’ supported by Arts Council England for supporting this project.

 

Published: 22nd March, 2022

Author: Matty Kingston

Share this page
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Latest

  • Greenham Banner at Tate Liverpool for Radical Landscapes Exhibition

    Greenham Banner at Tate Liverpool for Radical Landscapes Exhibition

    A banner from The Peace Museum collection is currently on display as part of the Radical Landscapes exhibition at Tate Liverpool.

  • International peace movements and the tradition of Easter marches

    International peace movements and the tradition of Easter marches

    The origin of the Easter march tradition is something we have explored in previous blog posts, and through various exhibitions at the museum; it is well represented in our collections. However, something that we haven’t explored in much detail is how widespread this tradition became internationally, and what it looks like today.

  • Defining Peace exhibition opening

    Defining Peace exhibition opening

    A new exhibition from The Peace Museum, which asks the question “what is peace?”. Join us to launch this exhibition on Tuesday 10 May.

  • New exhibition - Defining Peace

    New exhibition - Defining Peace

    We’re bringing a brand-new exhibition to Bradford this May, based at Kala Sangam in the city centre. Defining Peace: Past, Present & Future is an exhibition that asks the question “what is peace?”, and gives visitors the opportunity to define it for themselves.

Most read

  • Jobs

  • About us

    About us

    The Peace Museum explores the history and the often untold stories of peace, peacemakers, social reform and peace movements. It occupies three small galleries in one of Bradford’s many fine Victorian buildings. It is unique in that it is the only accredited museum of its kind in the UK.

  • The Rainbow: Peace, Equality and the NHS

    The Rainbow: Peace, Equality and the NHS

    In this section we explore the use of the rainbow as a peace symbol, an LGBTQ+ pride flag and the implications of it's use during the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Black Lives Matter

    Black Lives Matter

    For many, the urgency of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the need for immediate change to protect black lives has meant a willingness to go out and protest, despite the lockdown measures.

  • Chernobyl - A Nuclear Disaster

    Chernobyl - A Nuclear Disaster

    The events of 26th April 1986 have had a renewed interest since the release of HBO’s television series, examining the aftermath of the nuclear disaster. Millions across the world have watched the series. Tourism has increased to the region. Has Chernobyl renewed the debate around nuclear power? Emilia Bazydlo examines the event and how it influences our lives today.

  • Find us

    Find us

    The museum is currently located in Piece Hall Yard, Bradford , West Yorkshire, UK, but the museum is closed as we search for a new home...

  • Our exhibitions

    Our exhibitions

    View our current digital and in-person exhibitions.

  • School Programme

    School Programme

  • Our Collection

    Find out about our collection.

  • Craftivism: Making A Difference

    Craftivism: Making A Difference

    In Feb 2021, BBC 4 aired a programme presented by Jenny Eclair all about the art of craftivism and gentle protest. We were inspired to look at the craftivist objects in our collection!

Tag cloud

2020 Objects of Peace

Sign up for our newsletter

Please enter your first name
Please enter your last name
Please enter your email address Please enter a valid email address (e.g. [email protected])

Find us

The Peace Museum
10 Piece Hall Yard
Bradford
BD1 1PJ

01274 780 241
[email protected]

Links

  • Sitemap
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Youtube

The museum is currently closed as we prepare to move premises. Visit our exhibitions page to find out more about our online and pop-up exhibitions.

Registered Charity NO: 1061102 | Registered Company NO: 3297915
Copyright © 2019 The Peace Museum