Evolution of US flag

Evolution of US flag

No one knows with absolute certainty who designed the first stars and stripes or who made it. Congressman Francis Hopkinson seems most likely to have designed it, and few historians believe that Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, made the first one.

Until the Executive Order of June 24, 1912, neither the order of the stars nor the proportions of the flag was prescribed. Consequently, flags dating before this period sometimes show unusual arrangements of the stars aand odd proportions, these features being left to the discretion of the flag maker. In general, however, straight rows of stars and proportions similar to those later adopted officially were used. The principal acts affecting the flag of the United States are the following:

· On June 14, 1777, in order to establish an official flag for the new nation, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: „Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, aalternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.“

· Act of January 13, 1794 – provided for 15 stripes and 15 stars after May 1795.

· Act of April 4, 1818 &– provided for 13 stripes and one star for each state, to be added to the flag on the 4th of July following the admission of each new state, signed by President Monroe.

· Executive Order of President Taft dated June 24, 1912 – established proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single point of each ...