This Week In Vexillology: A Flag Day Special Edition

It's FLAG DAY!  I completely forgot until The Missus left for work in jeans and a patriotic plaid shirt and hair tie (the fine folks she's working with for clinical today get to watch The Help and do other fun things- hence, her casual clothes.)   But that got me thinking:  what should This Week In Vexillology do for Flag Day?

First, a primer:  for those peeps that don't know, today celebrates the adoption of our very own Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States in 1777 by the Second Continental Congress.  It took until 1916 for Woodrow Wilson to establish it as a holiday- but even now it's not an official Federal holiday- though towns have held annual parades going as far back as 1909 and some states (New York and Pennsylvania per Wikipedia, the Font of All Knowledge) recognize it as an official state holiday.  So celebrate the Stars and Stripes.  If you have an American flag and the means to fly, do so proudly today.

Second, so what do I intend to do in this space for Flag Day?  Well, talk about some flags...  specifically, I want to talk about the flags of the three states where I've lived so far in the United States:

The Cigar Parentals landed in New Hampshire way back in the mid-80s with little old me in tow- Father Cigar was doing some post doctoral work at Dartmouth and the original idea was to stick around  for a year or so and then head back across the pond to Old Blighty.  Nearly three decades later both the Cigar Parentals are still here. 

Crazily enough, according to the Wikipedia page for Flag and Seal of New Hampshire, this was voted as one of the ten worst flag within the United States and Canada (63rd out of 72) in a 2001 survey of the North American Vexillological Association.  For the life of me I couldn't tell you why.  A lot of state flags are little more than a state seal slapped onto a blue background- this one has a seal that's interesting, bordering that's aesthetically pleasing and overall doesn't look that bad.

But to brass tacks:  the design was adopted in 1909 and uses the Seal of New Hampshire which was adopted way, way back in 1775 and depicts the USS Raleigh- one of the first thirteen warships sponsored by the Continental Congress for the then new American Navy- being built in the stocks at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  

Next up, it's not heaven, it's Iowa:

In 1987, the Cigar Parentals and I rolled into Iowa City on a blisteringly hot August day, unloaded our Akita, Tencho and our then cat, an irritable Persian by the name of Madame Fufu Ming and then went to Mazzio's for some pizza.  When we came back, Fufu had just finished delivering a littler of kittens while Tencho hovered protectively nearby. 

That 2001 survey from the North American Vexillological Association I mentioned above?  It ranked Iowa 42nd out of 72 flags of US States, Territories and Canadian Provinces for design quality. The flag of Iowa bears a passing resemblance to the French Tricolore- and that turns out to be by design, as the red, white and blue in the flag stand for French Louisiana- which Iowa used to be a part of.  The flag was adopted in 1921 but approved by the Iowa State Council For Defense (um, ok...) in 1917 and I can't talk about Iowa's flag without giving a shout-out to Mrs. Dixie Cornell Gebhardt of Knoxville, Iowa- who designed the flag in 1917.   The bald eagle in the center is holding the state motto of Iowa, which was taken from the state seal.

Finally, the Medium White North- Minnesota:

The motto on the flag, L'Etoile du Nord or The North Star was retained from when Minnesota was the northernmost state in the Union (though eyeballing Google maps, thanks to a little chunk of Minnesota that sticks up north of the Lake of the Woods, I believe they're still the northernmost state in the Lower 48.)  The state seal is wreathed with white moccasin flowers.  The three years reference different points in Minnesota's history:  1819 the founding of Fort Snelling, 1858 statehood and 1893 the adoption of the state flag.   The 87 circles around the seal represent Minnesota's 87 counties and the 19 stars in the white symbolize Minnesota being the 19th state admitted to the Union.

The current design was adopted in 1957 and the state seal in the center was altered in 1983.  Oh and the North American Vexillological Association?  They rated Minnesota's flag as one of the ten worst flags... so apparently, if we move somewhere else at some point in the future, I should pick a state with a flag that's got a better designed according to the NAVA. (Though, given the level of detail of the symbolism of Minnesota's flag, I don't think it's all that bad.)

So there you have it, kids.  Have a Happy Flag Day and remember until next time- keep your flags flying!