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.)

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)

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)

This is another 13 star flag arrangement.

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

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.