Betsy Ross Flag
 
 

Continental Currency: 1776 

Brasher Gold Doubloon, 1787
(Smithsonian Collection) 

The Early American Flag, Betsy Ross,
"Star Spangled Banner" and "Old Glory"

No one knows with absolute certainty who designed the first stars and stripes, or who made it. Congressman Francis Hopkinson seems most likely to have designed it, and few historians believe that Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, made the first one.

Until the Executive Order of June 24, 1912, neither the order of the stars nor the proportions of the flag was prescribed. Consequently, flags dating before this period sometimes show unusual arrangements of the stars and odd proportions - these features being left to the discretion of the flag maker. In general, however, straight rows of stars and proportions similar to those later adopted were used.

The principal Acts affecting the flag of the United States are as follows:

On June 14, 1777, in order to establish an official flag for the new nation, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation".

The Act of January 13, 1794 provided for 15 stripes and 15 stars after May, 1795.

The Act of April 4, 1818 provided for 13 stripes and one star for each state, to be added to the flag on July 4 following the admission of each new state (signed by President Monroe).

Executive Order of President Taft, dated June 24, 1912, established proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single point of each star to be upward.

Executive Order of President Eisenhower, dated January 3, 1959, provided for the arrangement of the stars in seven rows of seven stars each, staggered horizontally and vertically.

Executive Order of President Eisenhower, dated August 21, 1959, provided for the arrangement of the stars in nine rows of stars staggered horizontally and eleven rows of stars staggered vertically.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Griscom Ross (1752 - 1836)
Betsy Ross was a Philadelphia seamstress, married to John Ross - an upholsterer who was killed in a munitions explosion in 1776. Betsy kept the upholstery shop going and lived on Arch Street, not far from the State House on Chestnut.

According to many historians, she has bee incorrectly credited with designing the first Stars and Stripes. The story has enormous popularity, yet historians maintain the facts do not substantiate it. The "legend" is as follows:

George Washington was a frequent visitor to the home of Mrs. Ross before receiving command of the army. She embroidered his shirt ruffles, among other things, and he knew her skills with a needle. As General of the Continental Army, George Washington appeared on Mrs. Ross' doorstep around the first of June, 1776, with two representatives of Congress - Colonel Ross and Robert Morris. They asked that she make a flag according to a rough drawing they carried with them. At Mrs. Ross' suggestion, Washington re-drew the flag design in pencil in her back parlor to employ stars of five points instead of six. ("Her" version of the flag for the new republic was not used until six years later)

This account of the creation of the first flag was brought to light in 1870 by one of Betsy's grandsons, William J. Canby, at a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. This took place 94 years after the event supposedly took place, as Mr. Canby was a boy of eleven when Mrs. Ross died in his home.

In the many years since the story was first told, numerous historians have conducted vigorous searches into extant government records, personal diaries, and writings of Washington and his contemporaries, but none of them have been able to verify the claims of Canby. However, one verifiable fact is to be found in the minutes of the State Navy Board of Pennsylvania for May 29, 1777 which says, in part: "An Order on William Webb to Elizabeth Ross for fourteen pounds twelve shillings and two pence, for making ship's colors put into Richard's store" The minutes show that Betsy made ships' colors for Pennsylvania state ships.

Canby asserted that the stars and stripes were in common, if not general, use soon after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, nearly a year before the resolution of Congress proclaiming the flag. There is no record of the flag being discussed, or of a committee being appointed for the design of the flag, in either the Journals of the Continental Congress or the diaries and writings of George Washington around that time. Meetings with Colonel Ross and Robert Morris cannot be documented.

Many historians do not support the notion that Betsy Ross made the first Stars and Stripes. President Woodrow Wilson, when asked his opinion of the legend, replied, "Would that it were true!"

Star Spangled Banner
"The Star Spangled Banner" was written by Francis Scot Key (1780 - 1843). In the summer of 1813, Major George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry, asked for a flag so big that "the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance. Two officers, a Commodore and a General, were sent to the Baltimore home of Mary Young Pickersgill (a maker of colors) and commissioned the flag. Working in an upstairs bedroom with her 13-year-old daughter Caroline, Mary used 400 yards of best quality wool bunting. They cut fifteen stars that measured two feet from point to point. Also, eight red and seven white stripes, each two feet wide, were cut. The flag was sewn together by laying out the material on the malthouse floor of Claggett's Brewery, a neighborhood establishment. By August it was completed and measured 30 x 42 feet. It cost $405.90.

At 7 am on the morning of September 13, 1814, the British bombardment of Fort McHenry began. However, before daylight on the 14th there was only silence - the British judged Baltimore too costly a prize, and ordered a retreat.

In the pre-dawn darkness, Key waited for the sight that would end his anxiety - the sight of Armistead's great flag blowing in the breeze. When daylight finally came, the flag was still there! Being an amateur poet, and having been so inspired, Key began to write on the back of a letter that he had in his pocket. Sailing back to Baltimore he composed more lines, and finished the poem in his lodgings at the Indian Queen Hotel. His brother-in-law, Judge J.H. Nicholson, took it to a printer and copies were circulated around Baltimore under the title "Defence of Fort McHenry" (two copies survive). It was printed in the "Baltimore Patriot" on September 20, 1814. In October, a Baltimore actor sang Key's new song in a public performance and called it "The Star Spangled Banner". It was adopted as the national anthem on March 3, 1931.

The flag went on view for the first time after flying over Fort McHenry on January 1, 1876. It now resides in the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History. An opaque curtain shields the fragile flag from light and dust.

Since May 30, 1949, the flag has flown continuously, by a Joint Resolution of Congress, over the monument marking the site of Francis Scott Key's birthplace, Terra Rubra Farm, Carroll County, Keymar, Maryland.

The copy that Key wrote in his hotel on September 14, 1814 remained in the Nicholson family for 93 years. In 1907, it was sold to Henry Walters of Baltimore. In 1934, it was bought by the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore for $26,400. In 1953, it was sold for the same price to the Maryland Historical Society. Another copy that Key made is in the Library of Congress.

Old Glory
The famous name was coined by Captain Stephen Driver, a shipmaster of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1831. As he was leaving on one of his many voyages aboard the brig Charles Doggett, some friends presented him with a flag of twenty-four stars. As the banner opened to the ocean breeze, he exclaimed, "Old Glory!"

He retired to Nashville in 1837, taking his treasured flag with him. By the time the Civil War erupted, most people around Nashville recognized Captain Driver's "Old Glory". When Tennesse seceded from the Union, Rebels were determined to destroy his flag. On February 25, 1862, Union forces captured Nashville and raised the American flag over the capital. It was a rather small ensign and people immediately asked Driver if "Old Glory" still existed. He went home and began ripping at the seams of his bedcover, and revealed the original 24-star "Old Glory" to the soldiers who accompanied him.

Captain Driver returned to Nashville and, although he was sixty at the time, climbed the flag tower, and replaced the small ensign with his flag.

Captain Driver's grave is located in the old Nashville City Cemetery, and is one of three places authorized by Act of Congress where the Flag of the United States may be flown 24 hours a day.

The 1787 Brasher Doubloon
There are only seven examples in existence today of the famed 1787 Brasher doubloon. The Brasher doubloon bears iconography relating to the State of New York (Ephraim Brasher hoped to receive a contract from the state for coinage).

Struck in 1787, the gold doubloons are among the most rare and most prized of all United States coins; $725,000 was paid for a doubloon in 1979.

Ephraim Brasher was also responsible for a unique Half-Doubloon, and he was involved production of the New York "Excelsior" Coppers, the Nova Eboracs, and some foreign coins that circulated during his tenure in business. When Brasher's mark was present on a coin, it would "pass" without question.

The hallmark "EB" represents its maker, Ephraim Brasher. The example shown on this page is the only known specimen with the hallmark on the eagle's breast. Other Brasher doubloons have the hallmark on the eagle's wing.