Reviews (1)

The state flag of Alaska designed by 7th grader Benny Benson
There are so many states that made it all the way into the 20th century before they got around to having an official state flag. In the 21st century Georgia is already on its third flag. But Alaska had its state flag some three decades before it became a state. In 1927 the American Legion in Alaska sponsored a contest throughout the territory for Alaskan children, grades seven through twelve, to come up a flag for the future state. So throughout the territory of Alaska each town set up a judging panel to pick the ten best local designs, which were then sent to Juneau where the 142 designs that were submitted would be judged. Polar bears were popular (e.g., a polar bear on an iceberg, a polar bear atop a globe). A third of the entries followed the examples of other states and did something with the state seal.
Read more

Reviews (1)

The official state flag of Connecticut, the Nutmeg State
Connecticut was the fifth colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788 but a hundred years later the state did not have an official description for a state flag. The Anna Warner Bailey Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution approached the governor about resolving the matter and the Connecticut General Assembly come up with specifications that matched the flag that was being generally accepted as the Connecticut stage flag, which was officially adopted in 1897.
Read more

Reviews (1)

The third (and hopefully final) Georgia state flag of the 21st century,
Not only is Georgia the only state to have adopted a new flag in the 21st century, they have done it twice. Georgia did not have a state flag until after the Civil War. In 1879, Colonel Herman H. Perry, a Confederate veteran, introduced a design modeled on the first national flag of the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars: It removed the stars and extended the blue canton to the bottom of the flag. In 1902, when the Georgia General Assembly was reorganizing the state militia, the state coat of arms was placed on a white shield and placed on the blue canton with a red ribbon below it containing the state's name. In 1914 they changed the date on the flag from 1799, the year that the state seal was first adopted, to 1776, the year of independence. During the 1920s the state seal showed up on the flag instead of the shield or the coat of arms. Then we get to 1956 and the biggest change took place.
Read more

Reviews (1)

The one American state flag comissioned by a king
How many islands make up Hawaii? Of course your answer depends on how big an island has to be in order to be counted as an actual island. But ultimately this one will come down to how many islands the people of Hawaii think they have, and the answer is found in the state flag of the 50th state (and they say television is not educational). This is an interesting flag because it was commissioned not by a state legislature, but rather by King Kamehameha I during the period (1810-93) that Hawaii was an independent kingdom.
Read more