Our Flag banner design

also see:

Students' 13 Star Designs
Betsy Ross House
Current Flag Design
Interview with Robert Helf

History - Early US Flags

The early American colonies belonged to England. The 13 original colonies were: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. (Rasul, Travis, and Michael S.)

Union Jack is a nickname for England's flag. (Travis)

Nicknames are great and interesting, well thought-out. "Old Glory" and "Stars and Stripes" are nicknames of the American flag. (Michael S.)

current British flag
British flag during colonial time

This is what the British flag looked like in colonial days.

Photo of Michael C. holding the current British Flag.

1776
George Washington, who later became our first President, used this flag. He used this when he was fighting against England This flag is called the Grand Union flag. It had 13 stripes that represents the 13 colonies. (Niesha, Travis and Rasul)

Grand Union Flag

The Grand Union Flag.

1777 - 1795 (13 Star Flags)
This is the Betsy Ross flag.
It had the 13 stars in a circle . . . there was not a rule as to how to place the stars on a flag. (Rasul)

Betsy Ross Flag
photo of antique 13 star flag

This is another 13 star flag arrangement.

The Betsy Ross Flag has the 13 stars in a circle.

Star Spanled Banner flag
1795 - 1818
15 stars and 15 stripes is called the Star-Spangled Banner flag. (Peggy)

After this flag, they decided to change the flag because they couldn't have all those stripes. The flag was getting too big and didn't look good. So they changed the stripes to 13, and just the stars could change with new states. Today there are 50 stars. (Rasul)

This is a photo of the real Star-Spangled Flag (15 stars and 15 stripes) which flew at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. It belongs to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
After this flag, the American flag design went back to only using 13 stripes but adding more stars as more states were added to the country.


title banner image assisted by Alison
navigation rollover graphics by Kyle
image of early British flag and photo of antique 13 star American flag used with permission of Dave Martucci
photo of the Star Spangled Banner flag obtained from http://www.smithsonian.org/resource/faq/nmah/starflag.htm belongs to the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History, Washington D.C., and is used here per their copyright guidelines (fair use)
photo of Betsy Ross Flag taken by class during field trip to Betsy Ross House
Grand Union flag graphic images obtained from Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia web site (listed as in public domain when accessed)