Who made the first american flag stars and stripes

Betsy Ross likely didn’t sew the first U.S. flag

It wasn’t until a century after the Revolutionary War—in a time of flag fervor—that the Philadelphia seamstress’ story became an urban legend.

It’s the stuff of elementary school pageants and patriotic legend: In the capital of a new nation at war with its colonial rulers, a widowed seamstress made history when she fashioned the first American flag. Her name was Betsy Ross, and … stop right there.

Although a beloved national myth holds that the Philadelphia upholsterer helped design and stitch the emblem of the United States, Ross’s involvement in the history of the American flag is widely regarded as apocryphal.

“Every historian who’s looked into it has found no credible evidence that Betsy Ross made the first American flag, or helped design it, or even that there was a flag committee,” says journalist and historian Marc Leepson, author of Flag: An American Biography. “It could have existed, but there is no evidence whatsoever.”

So how did the real-life Elizabeth Griscom Ross become associated with a widespread fable—and interwoven with the very threads of the Stars and Stripes?

The real Betsy Ross

Although Ross’s name appears in plenty of textbooks alongside those of the nation’s founders, the details of her life are more prosaic. Born Elizabeth Griscom in Gloucester City, New Jersey, in 1752, she was raised as a Quaker. In 1773, while serving as an apprentice to a Philadelphia upholsterer, she fell in love and eloped with John Ross, a member of a prominent Philadelphia family that included one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. For this “disorderly” and “undutiful” decision to marry a Protestant, the Quakers expelled her. (America declared independence on July 2—so why is the 4th a holiday?)

Betsy and John had their own upholstery business and a lively social life in Philadelphia, where they attended Christ Church with people like George Washington. But tragedy struck when John was killed in the Revolutionary War in 1775. Ross later married two more times and bore seven children. During her life, Ross brushed shoulders with some of the new nation’s most prominent figures (Christ Church’s congregation included 15 signers of the Declaration of Independence and other important figures in the American Revolution). She also sewed flags for Pennsylvania’s navy and supplied the Continental Army with goods such as tents during the Revolutionary War.

Ross died in 1836 at 84 years of age. But her name would hit the history books only after 1870, when her grandson, William J. Canby, spread a spurious legend in a speech on the history of the American flag to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

A patriotic—but possibly fictional—tale

In the speech, Canby claimed that a bereaved Betsy Ross had been approached in 1776 by George Washington and members of a congressional committee appointed to create a flag for their new nation. She suggested the flag include five-pointed stars instead of the six-pointed stars the committee had suggested, and she demonstrated how to cut them out with a piece of paper. Canby called on the world to acknowledge Ross as “an example of industry, energy and perseverance, and of humble reliance on providence.”

The story was soon printed in newspapers, and by 1873 an article in one of America’s most-read and most influential periodicals, Harper’s Weekly, spread it to the nation. It treated Canby’s anecdote as fact. Ross was “carrying on business of her own account in her little shop” when Washington, members of Congress, and other influential men paid her a visit, showed her a sketch of a proposed design, and asked her to make a flag with 13 six-pointed stars. “She intimated her willingness to try,” the author continued, repeating the story about her suggestion to use five-pointed stars.

The story’s popularity coincided with the birth of what Leepson calls “the cult of the flag”—a reverential, patriotic invocation of the nation’s emblem that began during the Civil War with the Union’s surrender at Fort Sumter in 1860 and continues today. Before the Civil War, use of the flag had been limited to the government and the military. But after Fort Sumter, says Leepson, the flag fad exploded. In the years that followed, adjacent phenomena like the 1892 Pledge of Allegiance and the push for a national Flag Day emerged. Wave after wave of flag fervor followed, and word of Ross’s accomplishment was largely accepted. (The long and surprising history of Flag Day.)

But historical reverence doesn’t equal historical truth. Though Ross’s grandson repeated family lore and even produced affidavits from family members attesting to the truth of the incident, Leepson says there’s no historical evidence to back it up.

If the flag committee or Ross didn’t design and produce the nation’s first official flag, who did? Evidence points to Francis Hopkinson, a patriot and naval flag designer who signed the Declaration of Independence and briefly represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress. In 1780, he billed the Continental Congress for designing the Great Seal and “the flag of the United States of America.” Hopkinson wanted a cask of wine for his services, but the government apparently never paid up.

A lasting legacy

True or not, the legend of Betsy Ross has lasted for more than a century. In 1892, it was further stoked by Charles H. Weisgerber’s iconic painting “Birth of Our Nation’s Flag,” which depicted an angelically lit Betsy Ross sewing the flag under the watchful eye of George Washington and others. Weisgerber drew on portraits of Ross’s daughters for the massive painting, and it immediately became a sensation. People lined up to see it at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the sentimental image became a national obsession.

Today, Betsy Ross has a bridge named after her. She’s appeared on postage stamps, and the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia is a popular tourist destination—even though it’s not clear the address was ever Ross’s home. An early design of the American flag is even known as the Betsy Ross flag. It has 13 red-and-white stripes with 13 five-pointed stars arranged in a circle to represent the colonies that fought for independence in the Revolutionary War. But despite over a century of trying, historians have yet to find contemporary evidence that connects Ross with the creation of the American flag. (Nine Fourth of July myths, debunked.)

Ross may have crossed paths with a historical figure who is known to have sewn an important early flag, however. Like Ross, Mary Young Pickersgill was a Philadelphia upholsterer who was paid to sew a flag during a military campaign, this time during the War of 1812. Pickersgill’s creation flew over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry when British troops attacked in September 1814—and was memorialized by poet Francis Scott Key as “the star-spangled banner.” Her original flag is preserved in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History—and there is documentary evidence of her commission in Baltimore’s Flag House and Star-Spangled Banner Museum.

But the lack of similar evidence connecting Ross to the first American flag doesn’t mean her life was unimportant. “She was a formidable woman,” Leepson says. As a businesswoman and a widow in a time inhospitable to women, Ross forged a place for herself in the new nation’s vibrant capital. And her story meant something to 19th- and 20th-century women, writes Ross biographer Marla Muller. She notes that in an era of debate over expanding women’s rights, Betsy Ross offered a vision of a female founder who contributed to the country without losing her femininity.

So why does the legend of Betsy Ross still resound with modern-day Americans? Chalk it up to superlatives and a bit of national nostalgia. “Americans love a first and a biggest and a most. It’s taken on a life of its own,” Leepson says. “It’s part of the fabric of American history. If only it were true.”

Who made the first american flag stars and stripes

Короткова С.А.
к.и.н., доцент
ГУ-ВШЭ (Москва)

This article is about legendary maker of the first American flag. According to family tradition she made flag of stars and stripes in early June 1776 for a secret committee consisting of G. Washington, R. Morris and G. Ross. Although this fact is undocumented her identity is well established in public, government and historical records.

14 июня 1777 г. Второй континентальный конгресс США в Филадельфии принял резолюцию, в которой говорилось: «Решено, что на флаге Соединенных Штатов будет 13 белых и красных полос, а также 13 звезд, белых на синем, которые будут представлять новый союз». За свою историю флаг претерпел 26 изменений. Через сто лет после принятия резолюции было решено отмечать 14 июня как День флага.

Во всех американских учебниках истории есть иллюстрация с картины Чарльза Г. Вейсбергера «Рождение нашего национального флага». На ней изображена Элизабет Росс, демонстрирующая сшитое ею первое национальное знамя комитету Конгресса. Кто эта швея, которую многие историки называют легендарной или самой известной женщиной времен Революции? Почему ее именем назван один из первых флагов нового государства?

Самюэль Гриском женился на Ребекке Джеймс, принадлежавшей к такой же строгой квакерской семье успешных торговцев[3]. У супругов родилось 17 детей. Элизабет (Бетси) была восьмым ребенком в семье. Вместе с братьями с сестрами она училась в Школе друзей (квакерской), где освоила чтение, письмо, счет и получила первые навыки в швейном ремесле. После окончания школы отец отдал ее в ученичество мастеру-драпировщику, который научил ее обивке мебели, шитью больших вещей, в том числе и флагов. Вместе с ней постигал ремесло сын пастора англиканской церкви Джон Росс. Романтические отношения между ними завершились свадьбой. Квакерская община отвергала браки вне нее. Поэтому молодые люди вынуждены бежать за реку Делавер. На другом берегу в Нью-Джерси, в таверне Хагга 4 ноября 1773 г. был заключен их брак[4]. За этот шаг Элизабет была отлучена от общины и семьи.

Спустя некоторое время после свадьбы молодая семья начинает свой собственный бизнес, открыв обивочную мастерскую. Предприятие оказалось удачным и принесло им материальный достаток. После отлучения от квакерской общины Россы посещали Церковь Христа, где сидели на службах на скамье в двенадцатом ряду. Рядом с ними часто был дядя Джона – полковник Джордж Росс, член Континентального конгресса, один из тех, кто поставит свою подпись под Декларацией независимости, и семья Вашингтонов – Марта и Джордж. Элизабет нередко получала заказы от Марты – расшить кружевами сорочки мужа или пришить пуговицы к его мундирам[5].

После начала Войны за независимость необходимые для обивки мебели ткани стали большим дефицитом, мастерская почти не работала. Джон Росс вступил в милицию Пенсильвании. В середине января 1776 г. он охранял склад боеприпасов в порту. В результате взрыва пороха был смертельно ранен и умер 21 января. Бетси Росс стала владелицей и управляющей мастерской, пытаясь поддерживать бизнес. Она занялась шитьем самых разных флагов для американского флота, т. к. это приносило определенный доход. По семейной легенде, которую в 1870 г изложил в письме Пенсильванскому историческому обществу ее внук У. Дж. Кэнбей, в конце мая – начале июня 1776 г. к Элизабет в мастерскую пришли три человека: Джордж Вашингтон, Джордж Росс и Роберт Моррис[6]. Это были члены секретного комитета Континентального конгресса, сформировавшие комиссию по флагу. Дж. Вашингтон, якобы, показал Бетси приблизительный набросок знамени, который карандашом набросал на стене мастерской. На рисунке были полосы и шестиконечные звезды. Швея убедила пришедших заменить их пятиконечными, продемонстрировав им насколько легче вырезать такие из материи, не отрывая ножниц. Пришедшие согласились с ее идеей и поручили ей сшить флаг. Через несколько дней он был готов. Этот момент, когда комиссия впервые увидела знамя нового государства, и изобразил художник Ч.Вейсбергер. Некоторые версии этой истории утверждают, что комитету так понравился флаг, что он подписал с ней контракт о том, чтобы она была пожизненным изготовителем стяга[7].

В июне 1777 г. Элизабет сочеталась браком во второй раз с капитаном Джозефом Эшберном в старой шведской церкви в Филадельфии. У них родилось две дочери – Цилла, умершая в младенчестве, и Изабелла. Осенью и зимой 1777 г. семье пришлось перенести немало тягот из-за того, что их дом на Арч-стрит был занят солдатами британской армии, захватившей город. Джозеф со своим кораблем принимал участие в снабжении американской армии. В октябре1781 г. он отправился в очередное плавание в Вест-Индию за необходимыми для армии припасами. В море его корабль был захвачен англичанами. Команда во главе с капитаном была отправлена в метрополию, где ее посадили в тюрьму Олд-Милл в Плимуте. Дж. Эшберн умер здесь 3 марта 1782 г. Его друг, Джон Клейпул, бывший с ним в заточении, дожил до освобождения. После победы под Йорктауном американцы обменяли пленных британцев на своих соотечественников. В июне 1782 г. Д. Клейпул вместе с сотнями других освобожденных из тюрем американцев отплыл в США. Через два месяца он добрался до Филадельфии, где передал Элизабет последнее письмо от ее мужа. После этого он еще год продолжал плавать на судне, периодически навещая семью своего бывшего друга.

В 1817 г. Джон Клейпул умер. Последние два десятилетия своей жизни он уже не мог работать, т.к. был парализован. На Элизабет легли все заботы в мастерской, доме, семье. После смерти мужа она еще почти десять лет руководила и трудилась в мастерской, пока в 1827 г. не передала ее дочери – Клариссе Уилсон. Элизабет Росс Эшберн Клейпул умерла 30 января 1836 г. в возрасте 84 лет.

Когда история про изготовление первого национального флага впервые была изложена внуком Бетси Росс, то она оказалась настолько подходящей для конструирования общеамериканского символа (после Гражданской войны), а героиня настолько соответствовала образу потомков пилигримов, создававших США, что была тут же подхвачена пропагандой. В 1873 г. ее напечатал «Harper’s Monthly». С тех пор она кочевала по страницам американской периодики. В 1880 г. в Бостоне вышла книга «История флага» адмирала Джорджа Х. Пребла, в которой он излагает версию о «флаге Бетси Росс». Он пишет, что хотя она подтверждается только рассказами под присягой дочери, племянницы, внука и внучки швеи, он не нашел никого другого, кто бы «мог потеснить Э. Росс с этого пьедестала»[10]. Племянница Роджера Шермана, одного из авторов Декларации независимости, в своей книге «Матери-пионеры Америки» приводит рассказ своей тетки Ребекки Шерман. Когда Ребекка узнала, что «Вашингтон поручил Бетси Росс сшить флаг», она не смогла справиться со своим любопытством и отправилась в мастерскую, где ей «доверили пришить несколько звезд на самый первый флаг Юной Нации»[11].

В 1898 г. была создана Мемориальная ассоциация Бетси Росс. Она занялась тщательными поисками документов в правительственном и исторических архивах. Исследователи выяснили, что Дж. Вашингтона в мае-июне 1776 г. не было в Филадельфии и никаких записей по секретному комитету, связанному с флагом не сохранилось. (Хотя секретные комитеты в те годы Конгресс создавал для решения самых разных вопросов). Не были найдены и записи о плате Э.Росс за сшитый флаг. Официальный Акт о флаге Конгресс принял летом 1777 г.

Тем не менее, история «флага Бетси Росс» была официально принята и появилась на страницах школьных учебников. В 1898 г. Мемориальная ассоциация объявила о кампании по сбору денег для того, чтобы превратить старый дом номер 239 по Арч-стрит в Дом национального флага. Около двух миллионов американцев пожертвовали по десять центов. В ответ они получили репродукции с картины Ч. Вейсбергера «Рождение нашего национального флага». В 1920 г. из-за пожароопасности двух соседних к дому фабрик, дом хотели даже перенести в самый большой городской парк. Но решили убрать фабрики. В 1937 г. здание ассоциация передала городским властям Филадельфии. 26 мая 1941 г. Городской совет решил его отремонтировать, на что пожертвовал деньги миллионер Этворт Кент, производитель радиоаппаратуры. Сюда во двор дома с кладбища был перенесен прах Элизабет Росс. Около четверти американцев с тех пор ежегодно посещают эту национальную святыню – Дом флага[12].

Филадельфийцы назвали самый большой мост в городе ее именем. 1 января 1952 г. по решению правительства Соединенных Штатов в честь 200-летия со дня рождения Бетси Росс была выпущена специальная трехцентовая марка.

[1]«The Star-Spangled Banner» — национальный гимн США. Его текст был написан в 1814 г. Фрэнсисом Скоттом Ки. Автор, 35-летний адвокат и по совместительству поэт-любитель, написал этот текст после того, как стал свидетелем обстрела Форта МакГенри в Балтиморе британскими кораблями в период войны 1812 г. Здесь было поднято знамя, сшитое Мэри Янг Пикерсгилл. Оно представляло собой полотнище 42 фута длиной и 30 футов высотой с 15 звездами размером в два фута. Этот флаг вдохновил Ф.Ки на создание гимна. Первое исполнение состоялось в Балтиморе 29 октября после американской премьеры пьесы Августа фон Коцебу «Граф Бенёвский». Текст был положен на популярную британскую застольную мелодию «To Anacreon in Heaven» и стал популярен среди американских патриотов. Песня стала официально использоваться в Военно-морских силах США (1889), затем в Белом Доме (1916), а 3 марта 1931 г. резолюцией Конгресса была объявлена национальным гимном. Песня имеет 4 куплета, но сегодня только первый из них является широко известным.

Betsy Ross

Francis G. Mayer/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images

Contents

Perhaps the best-known figure from the American Revolutionary era who wasn’t a president, general or statesman, Betsy Ross (1752-1836) became a patriotic icon in the late 19th century when stories surfaced that she had sewn the first “stars and stripes” U.S. flag in 1776. Though that story is likely apocryphal, Ross is known to have sewn flags during the Revolutionary War.

Betsy Ross: An Early American Life

Elizabeth Griscom was born on January 1, 1752, in Gloucester City, New Jersey. She was the eighth of 17 children. Her parents, Rebecca James Griscom and Samuel Griscom were both Quakers. The daughter of generations of craftsman (her father was a house carpenter), young Betsy attended a Quaker school and was then apprenticed to William Webster, an upholsterer. In Webster’s workshop she learned to sew mattresses, chair covers and window blinds.

Did you know? An 1871 pamphlet enthusiastically not only credited Betsy Ross for designing the first U.S. flag, but for coming up with the name «United States of America» and writing a hymn that was the basis for the French anthem «La Marseillaise.» (There is no evidence to support either of those claims.)

In 1773, at age 21, Betsy crossed the river to New Jersey to elope with John Ross, a fellow apprentice of Webster’s and the son of an Episcopal rector—a double act of defiance that got her expelled from the Quaker church. The Rosses started their own upholstery shop, and John joined the militia. He died after barely two years of marriage. Though family legend would attribute John’s death to a gunpowder explosion, illness is a more likely culprit.

The Story of the Betsy Ross Flag

In the summer of 1776 (or possibly 1777) Betsy Ross, newly widowed, is said to have received a visit from General George Washington regarding a design for a flag for the new nation. Washington and the Continental Congress had come up with the basic layout, but, according to legend, Betsy allegedly finalized the design, arguing for stars with five points (Washington had suggested six) because the cloth could be folded and cut out with a single snip.

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The tale of Washington’s visit to Ross was first made public in 1870, nearly a century later, by Betsy Ross’s grandson. However, the flag’s design was not fixed until later than 1776 or 1777. Charles Wilson Peale’s 1779 painting of George Washington following the 1777 Battle of Princeton features a flag with six-pointed stars.

Betsy Ross was making flags around that time—a receipt shows that the Pennsylvania State Navy Board paid her 15 pounds for sewing ship’s standards. But similar receipts exist for Philadelphia seamstresses Margaret Manning (from as early as 1775), Cornelia Bridges (1776) and Rebecca Young, whose daughter Mary Pickersgill would sew the mammoth flag that later inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Betsy Ross: Later Life, Work and Children

In June 1777, Betsy married Joseph Ashburn, a sailor, with whom she had two daughters. In 1782 Ashburn was apprehended while working as a privateer in the West Indies and died in a British prison. A year later, Betsy married John Claypoole, a man who had grown up with her in Philadelphia’s Quaker community and had been imprisoned in England with Ashburn. A few months after their wedding, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Revolutionary War. They went on to have five daughters.

Over the next decades, Betsy Claypoole and her daughters sewed upholstery and made flags, banners and standards for the new nation. In 1810 she made six 18-by-24-foot garrison flags to be sent to New Orleans; the next year she made 27 flags for the Indian Department. She spent her last decade in quiet retirement, her vision failing, and died in 1836, at age 84.

Betsy Ross: A Legacy Unfurled

The records of the U.S. flag’s origins are fragmentary in part because at the time Americans were indifferent to flags as national relics. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was written in 1812 but did not become popular until the 1840s. As the 1876 U.S. Centennial approached, enthusiasm for the flag increased.

It was in that environment, in 1870, that Betsy Claypoole’s grandson William Canby presented the family tale to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. At the time several claims on the first flag were surfacing, ranging from other Philadelphia seamstresses to a New Hampshire quilting bee said to have fashioned the banner out of cut-up gowns.

Most such stories, however wishfully sourced, expressed a national desire for symbols of female Revolutionary patriotism, of women materially supporting their fighting men and (just perhaps) showing George Washington a better way to make a star.

Who made the first american flag stars and stripes

The Stars and Stripes originated as a result of a resolution adopted by the Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia on June 14, 1777. The resolution read:

«Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.»

The resolution gave no instruction as to how many points the stars should have, nor how the stars should be arranged on the blue union. Consequently, some flags had stars scattered on the blue field without any specific design, some arranged the stars in rows, and some in a circle. The first Navy Stars and Stripes had the stars arranged in staggered formation in alternate rows of threes and twos on a blue field. Other Stars and Stripes flags had stars arranged in alternate rows of four, five and four. Some stars had six points while others had eight.

Strong evidence indicates that Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was responsible for the stars in the U.S. flag. At the time that the flag resolution was adopted, Hopkinson was the Chairman of the Continental Navy Board’s Middle Department. Hopkinson also helped design other devices for the Government including the Great Seal of the United States. For his services, Hopkinson submitted a letter to the Continental Admiralty Board asking «whether a Quarter Cask of the public Wine will not be a proper & reasonable Reward for these Labours of Fancy and a suitable Encouragement to future Exertions of a like Nature.» His request was turned down since the Congress regarded him as a public servant.

AN EARLY STARS AND STRIPES

During the Revolutionary War, several patriots made flags for our new Nation. Among them were Cornelia Bridges, Elizabeth (Betsy) Ross, and Rebecca Young, all of Pennsylvania, and John Shaw of Annapolis, Maryland. Although Betsy Ross, the best known of these persons, made flags for 50 years, there is no proof that she made the first Stars and Stripes. It is known that she made flags for the Pennsylvania State Navy in 1777. The flag popularly known as the «Betsy Ross flag,» which arranged the stars in a circle, did not appear until the early 1790’s.

The claims of Betsy Ross were first brought to the attention of the public in 1870 by one of her grandsons, William J. Canby. In a paper he read before the meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Canby stated:

THE GRAND UNION FLAG

The first flag of the colonists to have any resemblance to the present Stars and Stripes was the Grand Union Flag, sometimes referred to as the Congress Colors, the First Navy Ensign, and the Cambridge Flag. Its design consisted of 13 stripes, alternately red and white, representing the Thirteen Colonies, with a blue field in the upper left-hand corner bearing the red cross of St. George of England with the white cross of St. Andrew of Scotland. As the flag of the revolution it was used on many occasions. It was first flown by the ships of the Colonial Fleet on the Delaware River. On December 3, 1775, it was raised aboard Captain Esek Hopkin’s flag ship Alfred by John Paul Jones, then a Navy lieutenant. Later the flag was raised on the liberty pole at Prospect Hill, which was near George Washington’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was our unofficial national flag on July 4, 1776, Independence Day; and it remained the unofficial national flag and ensign of the Navy until June 14, 1777, when the Continental Congress authorized the Stars and Stripes.

Interestingly, the Grand Union Flag also was the standard of the British East India Company. It was only by degrees that the Union Flag of Great Britain was discarded. The final breach between the Colonies and Great Britain brought about the removal of the British Union from the canton of our striped flag and the substitution of stars on a blue field.

FIFTEEN STARS AND STRIPES

When two new States were admitted to the Union (Kentucky and Vermont), a resolution was adopted in January of 1794, expanding the flag to 15 stars and 15 stripes. This flag was the official flag of our country from 1795 to 1818, and was prominent in many historic events. It inspired Francis Scott Key to write «The Star-Spangled Banner» during the bombardment of Fort McHenry; it was the first flag to be flown over a fortress of the Old World when American Marine and Naval forces raised it above the pirate stronghold in Tripoli on April 27, 1805; it was the ensign of American forces in the Battle of Lake Erie in September of 1813; and it was flown by General Jackson in New Orleans in January of 1815.

However, realizing that the flag would become unwieldy with a stripe for each new State, Capt. Samuel C. Reid, USN, suggested to Congress that the stripes remain 13 in number to represent the Thirteen Colonies, and that a star be added to the blue field for each new State coming into the Union. Accordingly, on April 4, 1818, President Monroe accepted a bill requiring that the flag of the United States have a union of 20 stars, white on a blue field, and that upon admission of each new State into the Union one star be added to the union of the flag on the fourth of July following its date of admission. The 13 alternating red and white stripes would remain unchanged. This act succeeded in prescribing the basic design of the flag, while assuring that the growth of the Nation would be properly symbolized.

Eventually, the growth of the country resulted in a flag with 48 stars upon the admission of Arizona and New Mexico in 1912. Alaska added a 49th in 1959, and Hawaii a 50th star in 1960. With the 50-star flag came a new design and arrangement of the stars in the union, a requirement met by President Eisenhower in Executive Order No. 10834, issued August 21, 1959. To conform with this, a national banner with 50 stars became the official flag of the United States. The flag was raised for the first time at 12:01 a.m. on July 4, 1960, at the Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, Maryland.

Traditionally a symbol of liberty, the American flag has carried the message of freedom to many parts of the world. Sometimes the same flag that was flying at a crucial moment in our history has been flown again in another place to symbolize continuity in our struggles for the cause of liberty.

One of the most memorable is the flag that flew over the Capitol in Washington on December 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked. This same flag was raised again on December 8 when war was declared on Japan, and three days later at the time of the declaration of war against Germany and Italy. President Roosevelt called it the «flag of liberation» and carried it with him to the Casablanca Conference and on other historic occasions. It flew from the mast of the U.S.S. Missouri during the formal Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945.

Another historic flag is the one that flew over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It also was present at the United Nations Charter meeting in San Francisco, California, and was used at the Big Three Conference at Potsdam, Germany. This same flag flew over the White House on August 14, 1945, when the Japanese accepted surrender terms.

«Old Ironsides» in the War of 1812.

Following the War of 1812, a great wave of nationalistic spirit spread throughout the country; the infant Republic had successfully defied the might of an empire. As this spirit spread, the Stars and Stripes became a symbol of sovereignty. The homage paid that banner is best expressed by what the gifted men of later generations wrote concerning it.

The writer Henry Ward Beecher said:

«A thoughtful mind when it sees a nation’s flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself. And whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag, the government, the principles, the truths, the history that belongs to the nation that sets it forth. The American flag has been a symbol of Liberty and men rejoiced in it.

In a 1917 Flag Day message, President Wilson said:

«This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us—speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us, and of the records they wrote upon it.

«Woe be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our way in this day of high resolution when every principle we hold dearest is to be vindicated and made secure for the salvation of the nation. We are ready to plead at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a new luster. Once more we shall make good with our lives and fortunes the great faith to which we were born, and a new glory shall shine in the face of our people.»

Stars of David on the US Flag

The official history of the United States flag appears to be omitting a few intricate details. It’s hard to say what the true meaning of those details is, but the sheer fact of them being omitted prompts a few questions to be asked. Wikipedia chooses not to mention certain US flags in its «official» pages dedicated to the topic of the United States flag and its history. Other semi-official web sources also choose not to mention these «flag variations»

At the time of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the Continental Congress would not legally adopt flags with «stars, white in a blue field» for another year. The flag contemporaneously known as «the Continental Colors» has historically been referred to as the first national flag.

The First Official United States Flag ​

Betsy Ross flag ​

The Betsy Ross flag is an early design of the flag, popularly – but very likely incorrectly – attributed to Betsy Ross, using the common motifs of alternating red-and-white striped field with five-pointed stars in a blue canton. Grace Rogers Cooper noted that the first documented usage of this flag was in 1792. The flag features 13 stars to represent the original 13 colonies with the stars arranged in a circle.

Historical progression of designs ​

Since 1818, a star for each new state has been added to the flag on the Fourth of July immediately following each state’s admission. In years which multiple states were admitted, the number of stars on the flag jumped correspondingly; the most pronounced example of this is 1890, when five states were admitted within the span of a single year (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington in November 1889 and Idaho on July 3, 1890). This change has typically been the only change made with each revision of the flag since 1777, with the exception of changes in 1795 and 1818, which increased the number of stripes to 15 and then returned it to 13, respectively.

At some point I noticed that there were no photographic pictures of the United States flag prior to the Civil War (1861-1865). What could be a possible reason for that?

I have never heard of any six-point star designs used during the Civil War. Meanwhile according to the official sources it could only be the 1777 Francis Hopkinson’s flag. Using 1777 flag in the 1860s makes very little sense.

It was interesting to learn different little things pertaining to the US Flag. For example this 13 star boat flag. And I smell a rat here.

During the 19th century, for its smaller-sized ensigns, the U.S. Navy used a 13-star flag which became known as «boat flag». The Navy appears to have started this practice in the 1850s and is formally documented in the Navy Regulations of 1864. The reason for the lesser number of stars was so that the stars in a smaller size flag would have greater visibility at a distance.

In 1912, President President Taft formally recognized the Navy’s longstanding use of the 13-star ensign in Executive Order 1637, which defined the flag’s precise dimensions. The «boat flags'» formal recognition lasted just four more years however, as President Wilson acting through Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels discontinued the practice in 1916 with Executive Order 2390, after which all ensigns were supposed to have the full complement of stars.

And finally this.

During the battle of Yorktown in October, 1781, this flag flew on the right flank of the American troops. A 26 year-old British Lieutenant Colonel named John Graves Simcoe in command of the Queen’s Rangers at Yorktown painted this from his station across the river.

Many flag historians believe that the flag was between Simcoe and his position at Gloucester Point and the sun, thus resulting in the strange colors he perceived. After the war Simcoe went on to become Upper Canada’s first lieutenant-governor and probably the most effective of all British officials dispatched from London to preside over a Canadian province.

This 13 star Grand Luminary flag is an enigma wrapped in a riddle and surrounded by mystery. The flag is made of wool bunting with six-point, linen stars gracing the canton. These features point to manufacture during the early federal period, especially the six-pointed linen stars, a common feature of 18th century flags.

Six pointed stars on American Flags are a very rare trait, shared only by a handful of known examples. The same can be said of flags with cantons arranged in a six-pointed great star configuration. This configuration of stars on a flag of pieced and sewn construction is known on less than four or five surviving flags. The pattern is very similar to the star pattern seen on the official Great Seal of the United States. The first die of the Great Seal, cast from brass in 1792, featured a «glory» of six pointed stars arranged to form a single six pointed star. Although the «glory» on the Great Seal is oriented to with a single star at the top, the «glory» pattern on this flag is rotated 90 degrees.

This beautiful liberation flag of 12 stars and 11 stripes is visually striking with many rare traits such as the use of six-pointed stars, the canton resting on the red «blood» stripe, the use of white stripes as the first and last stripes of the flag, a slight swallow-tail form, and a banner staff and cord so the flag could be hung vertically. The seller of the flag relayed this story, from the man from which they acquired the flag: «He tells me that the flag comes from the town of Neufchâteau in the Vosges where he used to live. [It] belonged to a well off family in town and during the war in 1944-45 after the liberation of the region there was a column of German soldiers which came up the Rhone Valley and passed through the town. When the Germans saw the liberation flags hanging from the windows they stopped and rounded up everyone who had a flag and put them in the town plaza to shoot them but that since the Americans were not far they decided to run off fast instead. I asked him about the twelve 6 pointed stars and he told me that since the French weren’t always sure how many stars the American flag had they would just use the space they had.»

This flag of 48 six-pointed stars was found in Pont Aven, France, which is located in Bretagne, not far from Normandy, France. The original owner of the flag indicated that the flag was inspired by the liberation of Pont-l’Abbe in Normandy. The canton of the flag is made of silk, with small six-pointed cotton stars sewn hand sewn to the canton. The stripes are machine sewn and appear to be made of either nylon or rayon. A wiry metallic bullion fringe surrounds the flag, and is likely repurposed upholstery or curtain trim. The flag has a sleeve hoist and the canton is inset into the third white stripe, nearly resting on the red «blood» stripe. American flags with stars having other than five points are very rare.

This interesting, late 19th or early 20th century (ca 1889-1920) cigar box label has imagery that is especially modernistic for its period of manufacture. It features a 42 star American national flag with 6-pointed stars on a beautiful, cornflower blue canton. Though the reason for its use is unknown, this type of star is seen on other objects of this particular period. In present times one might identify the design as the Star of David, though this symbol, also known as the Shield of David, was not in widespread use by members of the Jewish faith until further into the 20th century.