The Living "Old Glory"
Flag Day, June 14, 2023 - Since Betsy Ross sewed together the first stars and stripes, the flag of the United States of America has done something that happens rarely to other national flags. It has changed. Not only has it undergone a change, it has undergone twenty-six changes, starting with the 1795 addition of two more stars (and stripes) representing Vermont and Kentucky.
Starting with Flag Day, and for the next 26 weeks, the HHS website will feature an official flag design of each of those 26 changes, along with a short summary of what was going on during its tenure. Several designs had a very short tenure - just one year - as did our 49-star flag from 1959 to 1960, that bridged the tenures of the second longest and longest designs.
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24 Stars
(July 4, 1822 - July 3, 1836)
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Significant historical events between July 4, 1822 and July 3, 1836: CLICK HERE
- Some of this information obtained from Wikipedia -
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23 Stars
13 Stripes
(July 4, 1820 - July 3, 1822)
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| Alabama (Dec. 14, 1819), Maine (March 15, 1820) |
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Between July 4, 1820 and July 3, 1822:
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21 Stars
13 Stripes
(July 4, 1819 - July 3, 1820)
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| Illinois (December 3, 1818) |
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Between July 4, 1819 and July 3, 1820: July 4th - Arkansas became a territory, and Alabama (Dec. 14th) and Maine (March 15th) were admitted as the 22nd and 23rd states. Other significant events:
- Some of this information obtained from Wikipedia -
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20 Stars
13 Stripes
(July 4, 1818 - July 3, 1819)
July 4
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| Tennessee (June 1, 1796), Ohio (March 1, 1803), Louisiana (April 30, 1812), Indiana (December 11, 1816), and Mississippi (December 10, 1817) |
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The year after the adoption of the 15-star design, Tennessee was admitted on June 1, 1796, but no change was made to the flag. And no changes came with the admissions of Ohio in 1803, Louisiana in 1812, or Indiana in 1816.
But after Mississippi was admitted on December 10, 1817, bringing the total number of states to 20, Congress decided to enact a new flag policy that mandated an additional star (or stars) be added to the flag at noon on the July 4th following the admission of any new state(s). The number of stripes was also permanently reduced to thirteen to represent the original thirteen colonies that became our first states.
At noon on July 4, 1818, during the first term of President James Monroe, the new 20-star design of four rows of five stars was introduced. Like several other future designs, this flag would be the current design for just one year, but lots of things happened during those 365 days.
On October 20, 1818 the Convention of 1818 between the U.S. and the U.K. was signed, establishing the U.S.-Canadian border at the 49th parallel for most of its length. On December 3rd, Illinois was admitted to the union, guaranteeing a new star on the flag next July 4th.
December 24, 1818 saw the first performance of "Silent Night." On February 17, 1819, the House passed the first Missouri Compromise. The first Trans-Atlantic sailing of a steamship was accomplished, mostly under sail, when the S.S. Savannah steamed into Liverpool on June 20, 1819. On July 3, 1819, the Bank of Savings, the nation's first savings bank, opened in New York City.
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15 Stars
15 Stripes
"The Star-Spangled Banner"
(May 1, 1795 - July 3, 1818)
June 23
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| Vermont (March 4, 1791) and Kentucky (June 1, 1792) |
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With the addition of Vermont in 1791 and Kentucky the following year, Congress decided that the U.S. flag should have two additioinal stripes and two additional stars to recognize the new states.
In 1793, the Senate passed a bill increasing the number of stars and stripes to 15. The House was not so easy to convince, however. There were opponents to the legislation who noted, for example, that replacing all flags aboard our naval vessels would cost $60 each. Massachusetts Rep. Benjamin Goodhue feared that the legislation would mandate changes to our flag with each state or group of states. He was right!
The House eventually passed the bill by a vote of 50 to 42. Starting on May 1, 1795 our flag would sport fifteen stars and fifteen stripes.
In her book, "The Star-Spangled Banner" (2003, National Geographic Society), author Margaret Sedeen wrote, "This was the flag that flew on American ships during hostilities with France from 1798 to 1801. In 1803 it was raised over New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. It was the flag carried on the western explorations of Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike." Indeed, it was the 15-star design that flew during a bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British in 1814, that inspired 35-year old Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key to write a poem that would become our national anthem.
The fifteen-stripe design lasted twenty-three years, until 1818, when new 20-star design was introduced. The new design included a return to 13 stripes. More on that next week . . .
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13 Stars
(June 14, 1777 - May 1, 1795)
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| "Betsy Ross" Design |
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| Official government design |
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Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York,
North Carolina, and Rhode Island.
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As legend has it, Betsy Ross created our first flag with thirteen white five-point stars arranged in a circle on a blue field, and thirteen alternating red and white stripes to represent the thirteen original colonies that became our first thirteen states. This is the design that most of us associate with the original flag. However, the arrangement of the 13 stars on the U.S. flag as officially adopted by the government was actually arranged in ranks and files (3-2-3-2-3), as has been the case on all subsequent designs.
Until the 49-star design was adopted by the government in 1959, there was no "official" design. Many flag makers, particularly those in the 18th and 19th centuries, often chose their own configuration of star arrangements in the union.
The 13-star design as adopted in 1777 represented the United States of America through the entire era of the Articles of Confederation and eight years into the Constitution era.
Regardless of the number of stars, no official U.S. flag is ever obsolete. And no single star in the union represents any one state.
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| "Hopkinson" version - 1777-1795 |
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| "Cowpence" Flag |
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| 4-5-4 pattern was very popular during the Revolutionary War. |
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| 12 stars in a square with one in the center as depicted in a famous painting by by John Trumbull |
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