Marc Leepson: The Biography of the Flag

Marc Leepson, in Newsweek (7-3-05):

[Marc Leepson is the author of the recently published"Flag: An American Biography."]

On July 4 Americans will fly Old Glory from our front porches to our Porsches and pickup trucks. We will wear star-spangled images on our T-shirts, baseball caps, headbands, earrings and boxer shorts. No country in the world matches the intensity of the American citizenry's attachment to its national flag.

So it's more than a little ironic that the origins of the flag are shrouded in mystery and legend. Just about the only thing we know for certain is that on June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress, without a word of debate, chose 13 stars"white in a blue field representing a new constellation," and 13 stripes"alternate red and white" to honor the 13 original states.

We do not know the identity of the individual who came up with the 13-star, 13-stripe design or exactly why Congress chose the stars and stripes and the colors.

And the Betsy Ross story? It's mostly a myth that was used to promote pro-flag political movements in the latter part of the 19th century.

Acceptance of the story, first promulgated by Ross' grandson in 1870, came at a time when Americans were beginning to heal the wounds of the Civil War - and as the feminist movement started making political waves and immigrants began pouring into the country from Europe.

The tale of a strong-willed woman, twice widowed, running her own successful business out of her home while caring for her children might be seen as pro-feminist. But in the latter half of the 19th century the story was regarded primarily as a rebuke to the emerging feminists seeking the right to vote. Here was a woman doing a traditional woman's job of sewing at home, surrounded by her family and doing the work for her country.

The nativist movement that emerged in the 1880s as a backlash against the influx of foreigners also embraced the story in promoting a surge of nationalism and patriotism surrounding the American flag. Flag Day was born in 1885; the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892, and a movement grew during that time to require all public schools to fly the flag.

During that period, as well, the Betsy Ross story was memorialized and popularized in prominent magazine and newspaper articles, in books, and in Charles Weisgerber's 1893 painting,"Birth of Our Nation's Flag," in which Ross is seated in her parlor, sunbeams pouring down on her, the flag draped on her lap in the company of George Washington, George Ross and Robert Morris. That much-reproduced scene, which even appeared on a postage stamp in 1952, almost certainly never happened.

Historians' best guess is that the flag's designer was Francis Hopkinson, a member of the Continental Congress from New Jersey. In 1780, Hopkinson sent an invoice to Congress for three designs: the Treasury Board seal, seven types of continental currency and"the Flag of the United States of America." No law, resolution or executive order exists providing an official reason for the choice of red, white and blue.

The closest thing consists of the views of Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress who designed the Great Seal of the United States."The colours" of the Great Seal, Thomson said in 1782,"are those used in the flag of the United States of America. White signifies purity and innocence. Red hardiness and valour and Blue ... signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice." ...