Kibbo Kift

Documenting the weird, anti-capitalist, green, folkloric/esoteric youth movement of 1920s Britain, known as 'The Kindrind of the Kibbo Kift'. Find interesting modernist design, magic, and camping herein. Most images come from the Museum of London's collection.

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Designs for the official sigils of the Head Man, Deputy Head Man, and Thing Head Man (a 'Thing' was a unit).

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Design for one of the Banners of the People. One side shows Merlin's head, the other a hawthorn bush, a magician's pentagram' and drops of water. The inscription refers to Merlin's imprisonment in a hawthorn bush by magic. The Banners of the People were made up by Kathleen Milnes and first seen at the Althing in June 1930.

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Cartoon no 60 of the Kibbo Kift cartoons, 9 March 1928. This expressed the belief that mechanisation had the potential to free man from wage slavery and degrading manual work: 'Machine' shall be the slave of Man but we will not slave for 'Machine'. The Kibbo Kift cartoons were drawn by John Hargrave, printed by Ruth Hargrave on an opalograph and sent out weekly to subscribers, 1927- 1928, in an effort to raise funds and generate new supporters

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A Kibbo Kift dance, 1928

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Another banner by John Hargrave

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One of the banners made for the final rally of the Women's Peacemakers' Pilgrimage held in Hyde Park in June 1926. The design is by John Hargrave, founder of the Kibbo Kift, and the mind behind much of the group’s designs and patterns.

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Inside a Kibbo Kift tent - note the random question mark detail on the fabric

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A Kibbo Kift tent