Pierce's collection numbers around 200 pieces today and he is
still searching. He acquired much of his collection in the last
four or five years, he says, buying at shows and auctions and
from the two principal dealers in the United States. The
collection, which normally adorns the walls of his New Jersey
home, boasts many overprint and signature flags and abounds with
flags with unusual star patterns. Many relate to the Civil War,
political campaigns, military events and advertising.
Price has written a book about parade flags, The Stars and
Stripes: Fabric of the American Spirit, which will be
published in July. Featuring images of the flags on view along
with an additional 30 or so from his collection, it will be
available at Hancock Shaker Village and at retail bookshops.
The simple elements of crisp white stars against a deep blue
ground and the stirring red and white stripes have prevailed
since the beginning on June 14, 1777, when the first flag act
decreed a formal arrangement. The act specified a union or canton
of 13 white stars on a blue ground, signifying the new
constellation, and 13 stripes. The composition was pretty much
freelance, depending on the maker. As the nation grew, stars were
added for each new state and the design shifted dramatically. The
number of stripes was boosted to 15 in 1795 but was restored to
13 in 1818. No order of the number of points on the stars or
their composition against the blue union was specified until much
later. Some stars had six points and others had eight, but most
had five.
While Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross is commonly thought to
have produced the first flag, that story is apocryphal, put about
by her grandson nearly a century after the fact. Ross did make
standards for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and she made a
design of a flag for George Washington, but it was not produced
until years later.
It is Francis Hopkinson, patriot, delegate to the Continental
Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence, artist,
poet and lawyer from New Jersey (like Pierce) who holds the first
flag honor. Appointed to the Continental Navy Board in 1776,
Hopkinson designed a flag for the new nation along with several
ornaments, seals and devices that appeared on official documents.
He submitted a bill for his services for a quarter-cask of public
wine. After nearly 18 months of bureaucratic wrangling with the
new government over payment, Hopkinson resigned in disgust. His
political enemies may have blocked payment, but journals of the
Continental Congress confirm that he designed the flag.
It was not until the Twentieth Century that the flag assumed the
basic layout we see today. Under Executive Order of President
William Howard Taft on June 24, 1912, the proportions and
arrangement of the stars were established. President Dwight D.
Eisenhower modified the arrangement twice in 1959 with the
addition to the union of Alaska in January and Hawaii in August.
Today's official flags have five-sided stars with a single point
straight up, two pointing left and two pointing right. The number
of stripes remains at 13. The official colors are Old Glory Red
(PMS 193C), white and Old Glory Blue (PMS 281C).
The earliest flag on view is the hand sewn silk example with 24
embroidered stars that dates from 1822 to 1836.
The earliest example on view in the Hancock Shaker Village
exhibition is a hand sewn silk flag with 24 embroidered stars that
was made sometime between 1822 and 1836. Another early specimen is
a 14-star flag made in Maine for Ossian Preston Ingraham, who was
born in 1847. The flag has a full-width canton with four-pointed
stars and has 14 stripes, with a white one on the top.
Another early flag is the rare 26-star flag that was printed on
homespun between 1837 and 1845. It has a double medallion, or
circle, of stars with a large central star and one star in each
corner. It is thought to be one of the few surviving examples of
the 26-star configuration. Another 26-star flag is one with a
great star pattern of a large central star surrounded by smaller
stars to form an overall star image.
Overprinting on flags was common in the Nineteenth Century. Five
Lincoln mourning paper flags with 34 stars were overprinted with
images of Lincoln and expressions of sorrow and were held by
mourners as the president's funeral procession passed. One bears
the legend, "We Mourn! Our Chief Has Fallen." Another proclaims,
"The Nation Mourns a Martyred Father." The 34-star flag was known
as Lincoln's flag because he refused to acknowledge the secession
of seven southern states and the flag retained its 34 stars.
A 35-star flag with a great star within a wreath of stars
probably came from a soldier assigned to the 24th Massachusetts
Infantry Regiment. It was accompanied by a note that affirmed,
"They are singing to my flag at a torchlight parade of
Lincoln's men with their pickaxes and spades in 1864. As I stood
on the porch waving this flag, the company of men opposite the
house turned and saluted my flag and sang 'Rally Round the Flags
Boys.' Florence G.S." Florence is assumed to have created the
handsome flag.
Another 35-star flag, one with an embroidered diamond pattern of
stars in the canton, was waved on the occasion of the 1865 return
of George N. Bliss, commanding officer of the First Rhode Island
Regiment, from the Shenandoah Valley campaign, Gettysburg and
Washington.
The mid-Nineteenth Century 14-star flag was hand sewn by a
Maine woman with a canton of four-pointed stars that runs top
to bottom of the flag. It has 12 stripes rather than the
con-ventional 13.
Yet another example dates from 1918, and its stripes bear the
names and some of the hometowns of company officers and enlisted
men of the Camp Colt Tank Corp at Gettysburg where members of the
Army Tank Corps trained and Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commanding
officer. An inscription within the stars memorializes Leo Cleary.
Parade flags were popular advertising objects during political
campaigns. An anti-Teddy Roosevelt campaign flag from the 1912
presidential election is included in the show. A 36-star flag on
view promoted the candidacy of William Henry Harrison.
A 45-star flag autographed July 3 and 4, 1899, lists the names of
seven residents of Lowell, Mass., and one from Providence, R.I.,
who celebrated the Fourth of July in Lowell.
A prime piece of Americana, a 1903 48-star flag, records a
baseball game between Lexington and Kingfield, Maine, and Fourth
of July fireworks at the Harlow family farm. An inscription on
the flag provides the details that bespeak the quintessential
American celebration.
A mid-Twentieth Century example is a 48-star flag that
commemorates the 1945 surrender of the Japanese.
"The Stars and Stripes: Fabric of the American Spirit" remains
on view through October 31 at the Hancock Shaker Village. The
2,100-acre Shaker village is located on Route 20, just west of
the junction of Routes 20 and 41. For information, 413-443-0188
or www.hancockshakervillage.org.
