“I have a
hand sewn, 16’ X 22’ wool American flag with 48 stars. I know it is pre-1959.
I’m looking for any information you can find about it.” The Newton Falls Public
Library staff was fascinated by this, considering the size of the flag.
Flag: an American biography
by Marc Leepson [p.223] confirmed that the flag was indeed from before 1959 as
the 48th state, Arizona, joined the Union on February 14, 1912 and
Alaska, the 49th joined by proclamation on January 3, 1959. The 49
star flag become official on July 4.
According to
the book, Saga of the American Flag: an illustrated history by Candice M.
DeBarr and Jack A. Bonkowske [p.50], a survey taken in 1912 “revealed that
governmental agencies were using flags of 66 different sizes, most of varying
proportions. Nongovernmental flags were even more widespread in the
irregularities.” Several websites have information
about the dimensions of American flags. USFlag.org gives the ratio of hoist [width] X 1.9 = fly
[length]. “Executive Order of President Taft dated June 24, 1912 -
established the proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the
stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single point of each star to be
upward. This flag was official for 47 years, longer than any other flag.” The
blog, The Daily Flag states “Flags today come in easy to
remember sizes, 3X5, 4X6, 5X8, but the flag code clearly indicates that the
size ratio for the US Flag is 1:1.9.” According to the flag code our patron’s
flag should actually be 16’ X 30.4’ or by common standards, 16’ X 24’. This
would indicate that it was indeed handmade.
Worthpoint.com has an entry about Collecting Historical American Flags by Tom Carrier which we suggested our patron read to learn more.
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