OUR STATE FLAGS 



ON PAGES 323 to 334, for the 

 first time in the history of the 

 United States, the flags of our 48 

 States are reproduced in colors in one 

 publication. 



The flags have been arranged in the 

 order that the respective States joined the 

 Union. If the first numeral of each num- 

 ber be omitted, the relative age of the 

 State is at once -apparent ; for instance, 

 Michigan, 326, is the twenty-sixth State , 

 Maine, 323, the twenty-third, and Okla- 

 homa, 346, the forty-sixth. 



Unless otherwise stated, both sides of 

 a flag are the same in design. 



These flag emblems combine much that 

 is beautiful, historic, and inspiring, and 

 cannot fail to thrill the heart of every 

 American ; but an observer may perhaps 

 wish that there was not such a uniformity 

 in design. About one-half of the States 



use the same blue ground with the State 

 seal inscribed in the center, with the re- 

 sult that these flags are all so similar that 

 it is very difficult to distinguish one from 

 the other at a short distance. 



Such designs as Maryland, 307 ; Ar- 

 kansas, 325, and California,-33i, etc., are 

 easily distinguishable at considerable dis- 

 tances. 



Many of these flags are soon to fly on 

 European battlefields for the first time in 

 history, borne by the National Guard of 

 the several States, now mustered into the 

 Federal service. Some of these State 

 emblems will receive their baptism of 

 fire, and to the men fighting under these 

 colors will be entrusted the proud dis- 

 tinction of winning the first silver bands 

 which encircle the staffs of their regi- 

 mental standards, thus perpetuating the 

 story of each unit's worthy achievements. 



301. Delaware. — A commission consisting 

 of the Secretary of State, the President pro 

 tempore of the Senate, and the Speaker of the 

 House of Representatives, created under the 

 laws of Delaware, for the purpose of selecting 

 a State flag and colors, made a report in 1914, 

 which, while not adopted by the legislature it- 

 self, has been accepted as official. It consists 

 of a field of colonial blue, upon which is im- 

 posed a diamond of buff which bears the coat- 

 of-arms of the State of Delaware. Underneath 

 the diamond there appears the following in- 

 scription: "December 7th, 1787." A flag has 

 been recorded in the office of Recorder of 

 Deeds for Kent County and a duplicate filed 

 in the office of the Secretary of State at Dover. 



302. Pennsylvania. — With a field of blue 

 of the same shade as that of the flag of the 

 United States, the State flag of Pennsylvania, 

 officially described in the law of June 13, 1907, 

 bears the coat-of-arms of the State in the cen- 

 ter on both sides. The length of the staff is 

 nine feet, including the brass spearhead and 

 ferrule. The fly of the flag is six feet two 

 inches and its width four feet six inches. The 

 edges are trimmed with knotted fringe of yel- 

 low silk, two and one-half inches wide. A cord 

 with tassels attached to the spearhead is eight 

 feet six inches long and composed of white 

 and blue silk strands. The coat-of-arms of the 

 State consists of a shield with a ship sailing 

 on an ocean in the upper third, two plows in 

 the middle section, and three sheaves of wheat 

 in the lower section. Two harnessed horses 

 rampant support the shield ; an eagle with out- 

 stretched wings forms its crest, and below it is 

 a streamer carrying the motto, "Virtue, Liberty 

 and Independence." 



303. New Jersey. — Under a resolution ap- 

 proved March, 1896, the flag of the State of 

 New Jersey is of buff color, having in the cen- 

 ter thereof the arms of the State properly em- 

 blazoned. This flag is the headquarters flag 

 of the Governor as Commander-in-Chief, but 

 does not supersede the distinctive flags which 

 are or may hereafter be prescribed for differ- 

 ent arms of the military or naval, service of 

 the State. When the measure was pending in 

 the New Jersey Legislature, a memorandum 

 was submitted showing why buff was chosen. 

 This memorandum states that in 1779 the Con- 

 tinental Congress by resolution authorized and 

 directed the Commander-in-Chief to prescribe 

 uniforms both as to color and facings for the 

 regiments of the New Jersey Continental Line. 

 Accordingly, General Washington in general 

 orders directed that the coat of such regiments 

 should be dark blue, faced with buff. Later it 

 was ordered that the flag of the State troops 

 should have a ground to be the color of the 

 facing. Thus the New Jersey flag became buff 

 under orders of the Father of his Country. 

 The memorandum also states that Washington 

 elected buff facings for the New York and 

 New Jersey troops, because New York and 

 New Jersey were originally settled by the 

 Dutch, and Jersey blue and. buff figured in the 

 Netherlands insignia. It was displayed in view 

 of the combined French and American armies 

 in the great culminating event of the Revolu- 

 tion, the capitulation of the British army under 

 Cornwallis at Yorktown. 



304. Georgia adopted a State flag in 1879. 

 It has a perpendicular blue bar from top to 

 bottom next to the staff, with three horizontal 

 bars — red, white, and red. On the blue per- 



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