The Congress, created by the Articles of Confederation, ordered Fort Harmar built in 1784. Colonel Josiah Harmar was dispatched to the Ohio frontier with orders to discourage illegal settlers from moving into Ohio. In 1785, Harmar ordered the construction of Fort Harmar at the junction of the Ohio River and the Muskingum River, near near present day Marietta. During construction a crude drawing was made of the walls, probably by workmen, which showed this flag. It is of interest because the five-pointed stars, placed in a 4-5-4 pattern, were placed in a 45º diagonal angle.

This rare flag is one of only a very few known United States flags displaying 14 stars, representing Vermont’s admission as the 14th state in 1791. This flag only had 10 stripes and appears to have been a parade and rally flag that was originally given as a gift to Nathan Beman, one of Ethan Allen’s "Green Mountain Boys," at some time between 1795 and 1815. Nathan Beman assisted Ethan Allen during the surprise attack and capture of Fort Ticonderoga. It was the capture of its cannons and the eventual delivery to Dorchester Heights in Boston that allowed Washington to beat the British and win Boston in the early days of the Revolution.

Although the star pattern used in the canton of this Stars and Striped flag has been arranged in normal horizontal lines, it is shown here because this is an example of an unofficial variant of a flag that never existed! In 1795, the United States flag law had changed to have the flag go from 13 stars and stripes to 15 stars and stripes, however, no provision was made for recognizing the entry of new States into the union, or a standard process of how to change the flag design when this happened. Therefore, in 1796, when Tennessee entered as the 16th State, the flag wasn't changed as Congress discussed the problem.

In 1812, a 17-star US Flag was first raised over a school house on Catamount Hill in Colrain, Massachusetts. It wasn't until after the Civil War that flying the flag at schools and other public buildings became a general practice. Flying this hand-made 16-star flag was, as far as we know, the first known instance of a flag being flown at a school house, and predates the Civil War by almost 50 years.

Although, not an "official" flag design, this 20-star flag flew over the Capitol dome for six months in 1818. There have been many suggested "Great Star" designs like this one over the years. Flags whose stars form a larger star are called either "Great Star" flags or "Grand Luminary" flags. The terms are interchangeable.

Another "Grand Luminary" flag designs seen in 1818 was the Star Cluster design shown here where the Great star was custered tightly together.

These designs, probably based on the traditional "Betsy Ross" and "Cowpens" designs of the Revolutionary War (disputed) all had common design eliments.

13-Star "North Point" Flag 1814
(Sometimes referred to as the "Cowpens" Flag)

While the "official" standard for the flag was one stripe for each star until 1818, this un-official 1796 flag (top left) returned to the 13 stripes, still having 17 stars. There were 17 striped flags in use as well.

The practice of having one star centered in a circle of stars was well established by 1836, as demonstrated in the 25 Star Naval Ensign (bottom left), with the large center star normally representing the newest star admitted to the Union. The state represented on this flag would be Arkansas, the 25th state admitted to the United States. This particular flag was presumed to be a naval ensign.

There were several different "Great Star" design flags used between 1837-1845 that seemed to rotate the star's axis making it appear even upside down at times. This interesting "upside down" star-within-a-star-within-a-star effect is a fine example of early design variations. Akin to the "Circle within a circle" design, this one has a large star in the center, with five stars forming a star pattern around it and the remaining 20 stars forming a large star around them.

26-Star US Flag
(Type 3)

The Great Star Design of 1837, was depicted in the US Flag Commemorative postage stamp set (1976), consists of 13 stripes, blue canton with 26 5-pointed stars arranged as in our Type 3 variant: with one very large star in center, 5 smaller stars in each angle of center star, 5 smaller stars between each of the previous 5, and 3 yet smaller stars at each ordinal point, giving impression of a large star pointing down.

This flag derives its name from the fact that the name "S. Gildersleeve" is written on its host. Sylvester Gildersleeve ran shipping company in Portland, Connecticut, and probably used this flag on one of his ships.

This flag uses what is called a Double Wreath star pattern, which was popular in the 1840s. Techniques of printing on silk and cotton had been discovered that allowed campaign and small flags (sometimes called economy flags), could be produced and sold for a very low price. This made them a natural for political rallies and flag-waving campaigns.

This flag probably dates from the 1848 presidential elections, but the double wreath design would be used on various Mourning flags from 1840 through 1860. Black bunting would be added in many cases.

Between 1845 and 1867, many Union forts used garrison flags utilizing a star arrangement known as the "Diamond pattern." It was a diamond pattern flag that flew over Fort Sumter in 1861 when the Civil War began.

33-Star Diamond Pattern		37-Star Bunting Company Flag

Many U.S. Army garrison flags were made by the US Bunting Company. Benjamin Butler, a US Civil War General and Congressman from Massachusetts, was an owner of the US Bunting Co. located in Lowell, Mass. After the Civil War ended, his company developed a patented method for resist-dyeing wool to make flags and Butler eventually got the US Congress to pass a law giving preference to US made bunting when buying flags for the government. Since his company was the only one making wool bunting in the United States, this was definitely an advantage for the company. His Company stayed in business up to the early 1890s.

This "Grand Luminary" design was a very poplar one with the general public, but was not made official in 1851. The military never used this flag design, but it was popular with civilians.

Another popular non-military 31-Star design is sometimes called the "Lincoln Campaign Flag." Abe Lincoln served as a United States Congressman between 1847 and 1849. He was, however, not reelected in 1848. He then campaigned again for his old seat in 1850, which is when this flag was used, from just after the admission of California, but before the official addition of their star to the flag, until the official one was approved. Lincoln lost this election and another in 1858 to Stephen Douglas, but was elected President in 1860.

Another example of a tribute to our First Centennial shows in this attempt to plan the size of the stars so that they fill as much of the blue canton as possible. The result is almost a random looking star pattern with no clear horizontal rows.

Although never an official version of the United States flag, this very popular variant design was proudly displayed by many patriotic Americans. It was never officially used by the military or any government organization.

It should be noted here that Congress had never made any regulation about what type of star pattern should be used on the "official" United States flag. Therefore, any pattern was acceptable. The Navy regulated the star pattern on their "boat" flags to horizontal rows, but the Army and civil government did not. This explains the many different star patterns.

The 33-Star garrison flag that flew over Fort Sumter is sometimes called "the flag that started a war." The fort's commander was Major Anderson when the first shots of the American Civil War were fired in Charleston harbor. He surrendered to the Southern forces under General Beauregard after three days of token resistance. The only two casualties of the fighting were two Confederate privates killed when their cannon accidentally exploded.

Ever since the Mexican-American War (about 1845) the Army had followed an unofficial tradition of using a "diamond" pattern for the stars on their garrison flags. The Fort Sumter flag is a good example of this practice.

The year 1861 saw many unusual and interesting flag designs marketed. This one attempted to honor the original and traditional 13 states by enlarging their stars among the scattered thirty-four states in the Union at that time.

The unusual length of the field of stripes indicates that this great standard was probably a naval flag. The pattern is basically a square "phalanx" of militarily aligned stars, with two independent "leaders" at left, and two "stragglers" at right. The result of this arrangement is a striking and very likely unique interpretation of the theme.

The "Great Flower"" flag, also known as "The Candy Stripe"" flag because of the red and white "candy stripe" running down the left side. Five asymmetric petal shapes loop out from the off-center heart of a graceful "Great Flower" pattern of thirty-four stars. The designer and locations that used this 1861-1863 flag are unknown.

This clever variant had five clusters of six stars each with the final four stars being centered on the top, sides and bottom. The five clusters of stars form a Saint Andrew's Cross and the four single stars form a Saint George's Cross. Because of this, this design was also called the "Great Cross" Flag.

These national presentation colors were manufactured by the Evans & Hassall Company of Philadelphia for all the Union New Jersey regiments after 1863.

This "Wagon Wheel" design is another sample of a circle of stars with an inner design. A close look will reveal a circle of stars within the outer circle with a five-point "star cluster" in the middle. It was also a favorite naval pattern well into the 19th century.

This unusual, almost squarish flag, with a rather mixed 4-6-5-6-5-6-4 staggered pattern in the canton makes it a rather hard flag to label. Although this flag was not used widely, there are a few confirmed uses as a garrison flag during the Civil War.

The "Windblown Flag" of thirty-six stars was once the possession of Civil War veteran, Louis Bernard, later a pioneer in Oregon. The canton's illusionistic design that appears to taper at one end, creates the impression that the flag is in motion - or "windblown" - even when at rest, as shown here.

The so-called "Medallion" Centennial Flag of 1867, would become one of many that were made to celebrate the upcoming First Centennial in 1876. With its "Betsy Ross" circle of 13 stars are in the inner ring to identify the original 13 colonies, and an outer circle of 24 stars to identify the states that have joined the union since that time, this flag was a natural choice for the event.

In 1877, one star was added to the United States flag, representing Colorado, bringing the total number of stars to 38. Several unofficial designs with concentric circles became popular, probably caused by the popular First Centennial designs used in the 1876 celebrations. Versions of the flag included both elongated and regular circle versions.

The 35 stars were arranged in this manner to spell "FREE" to declare support for the Free Soil Movement.

The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. It was a third party that largely appealed to and drew its greatest strength from New York State. The party leadership consisted of former anti-slavery members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party. Its main purpose was opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories, arguing that free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery. They opposed slavery in the new territories and worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed blacks in states such as Ohio.

These two 35-Star flags with their black borders are examples of the Lincoln Mourning Flags flown on the locomotives that pulled the Lincoln Funeral Train. It should be understood that these special flags are only examples because the engines were switched as the train was passed from railroad to railroad. There were at least five or more different engines used to pull the train on its journey, plus more pilot locomotives that ran the tracks ahead of the actual train to make sure the tracks were clear. Each railroad used their best and most powerful engines to move the funeral train slowly from station to station and they each decorated their engines differently with locally made flags, some with black borders and some without. They were usually flown from the fenders of these locomotives.

In 1876 Americans celebrated their nation's 100th birthday One enterprising manufacturer, ignoring the proper star count, produced this popular flag with 81 stars producing "1776-1876" with the star pattern. The actual state count by the end of 1876 should have produced a 39 stars on the flag.

The design shown here appears to have crossing diagonal lines of stars outlining the shape of the Cross of St. Andrew. Some see in this design Southern sympathies for the reconstruction south; but, if the flag is placed upright, it will also be seen that the arrangement also depicts the shape of an hourglass with two stars representing two centuries, in the process of dropping to the bottom of the glass. We could have here, therefore, perhaps a most imaginate composition celebrating the advent of the nation's First Centennial.

Hawaii lost its independence to an armed revolt led by American residents in 1893, and was annexed to the United States in 1898. I like to call this design a "Starry Column" or "Starry Pillar," complete with its starry base and capitol.

In 1890, a man named William Washburn living in Rockland, Massachusetts, filed a patent on this interesting design for a 44-Star flag.

In 1910, Wayne Whipple, a well-known author of popular books on American history, proposed a meaningful design for the star pattern of the flag. His idea was that the central 13 stars should represent the original states as on the great seal, then to surround them with a ring of 25 stars representing the states that joined the Union in the first 100 years, and then finally have a ring of ten stars representing the states that joined in the second hundred years. He called his design a "History" flag. He then challenged students who read his book to come up with their ideas for a meaningful star arrangement.

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the 50-Star US Flag (1960-2010) there have been several suggestions put forth, although Congress or the President haven't seemed interested in making anything official. It seems a shame not to celebrate the 50th birthday of our longest living flag.

In 1979, this interesting 50-Star design was suggested by the well-known Flag Historian (Vexillologist) Dave Martucci for a new design of the United States flag.

The Tea Party movement is an American socio-political movement that emerged in 2009 through a series of locally and nationally coordinated protests. The protests are partially in response to several Federal laws and a series of health care reform bills.

This is the 51-star version of the United States flag that is commonly used by supporters of the Puerto Rican Statehood Movement which advocates Puerto Rico's admission into the United States of America as the 51st state.