Early US Flags
Students' 13 Star Designs
Betsy Ross House
Interview with Robert Helf

History - Current Flag Design

The current United States flag has 13 red and white stripes (representing the original 13 colonies) and 50 stars (representing the 50 different states) . A man named Robert Heft designed the arrangement of the 50 stars when he was in high school.

He figured how 50 stars should be on the US flag. The design of the current 50 star flag was made by him.

In 1958 he was 17 years old and living with his grandparents in Ohio.

He did the flag design as a class project.

He had to do all the work on his own.

He originally received a B grade for his project.

He discussed his grade with his teacher and it was agreed that the situation was to change the grade if his project was accepted and adopted by Congress.

His project was accepted. Alaska and Hawaii were the new states.

His teacher kept the agreement and changed his grade to an A for the project.

Michael C. holds a US flag he brought in from home.

The stars on the US Flag have 5 points. When we visited the Betsy Ross House, the guide showed us how to fold and cut paper to make a 5-pointed star. This is a scanned and shrunk picture of the paper star she made us.