Origin Story: A Brief History of the American Flag

 It is no surprise that a two-hundred and thirty-five year long history contains endless (read: sixty-three) transformations of the American national flag.

Even though the first ever identity of the national flag cannot be located in archives of the past, it can be said with certainty that the earliest versions would not possibly be detected by American citizens today.

The passage of years, changing political atmospheres and circumstances has led us today to the Star-Spangled Banner that we call our national flag.  Even though the flag still stands for the values that it pioneered in the beginning, the context and reference of those values have come different.

Even though today the American flag is known to represent a united front put forth by all the states combined, it wasn’t always like this.

Here’s a quick run-through of the origin story of the flag.

American Revolution

During 1775, the political climate of the US was anything but stable. With the American Revolution causing an upheaval, the colonists barely agreed to share the shade of the same national flag. The beautiful combination of royal blue, bright red and sparkling white that we see today on the flag evolved from a cruder image of rattlesnakes and pine trees being printed on it.

Alarming isn’t it?

At that time, there could be flags found that had none of the colors of the current flag; only a coiled snake printed on the flag with “Don’t tread on me” written over it!

Flag with the Union Jack

 Following the acquisition of the British territory of Boston, George Washington the then commander-in-chief of the army and later the first president of US announced that a flag called Continental Colors will be raised.

As the name suggests, the flag contained the Union Jack symbolic of Britain on the top left corner with rest of the flag covered in 13 stripes in red and white.

On 1^st January, 1776 the Grand Union Flag was raised with a design meant to strike a chord both with the radicals wanting an independent state and those who wanted affiliation with the Crown.

Treading Enemy’s Territory

As if the seize of Boston was not enough, the flag represented a breach of property and ownership by us of the British flag. Washington soon realized it wasn’t in the best interests of the nation to borrow inspiration for the flag from the enemy.

This is why, meanwhile the Articles of Confederation were being drafted, the Congress made the announcement on 14^th of June, 1777. The national flag was changed to 13 stripes and a new constellation design of 13 white stars against blue background at the top-left as a union.

Even though the creation of the first flag is generally attributed to Betsy Ross, not enough evidences can be found to confirm this speculation.

With the addition of each state, the number of stripes kept increasing in the flag design until it was 15 stars and stripes each until 1818. After this, the Congress decided to accommodate the increasing number of states by honoring the original 13 colonies with a stripe each and number of states denoted by the stars in the union.

The Civil War, 1861

It was in the duration and aftermath of the Civil War that occurred in 1861 that the flag became a totem of nationalistic fervor in the North. Swayed by a religion-like passion, the cult of the flag was born at that time.

This is when the act of deriving patriotic energy from the red, white and blue colors can be traced back to.

It was not up until 1912 that President William Howard Taft released an order determining that the flag would appear as it does today. A few years later, 14^th June was marked as the Flag Day on the American calendar in the memory of the 1777 Resolution.

Federal Flags knows and values the uniqueness of each nationality and has therefore preserved national flags as well as American flags for sale from all across the world.  

Since 2002, they have been known as the ultimate American flag store because the offer American flags, commercial aluminum flagpoles, light pole banners, retractable banners and much more. They also provide custom printed flags with business logos to help market your business for a minor cost.

Currently based in Atlanta, Georgia, they offer FREE shipment services on orders above $75. Call 1-404-409-9737 to place your order!