Fred Dresser
The Grand Union Flag
The first flag to represent the united colonies was called the Grand Union Flag and flew from late 1775. It carried the 13 red and white stripes we still know, but in place of stars its canton held the British Union flag. It captured the colonies’ position at the time: united in resistance, not yet declaring full separation.
1777: A New Constellation
June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution: “Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
That single sentence is the entire founding document of the American flag. Early flag makers improvised: stars in rows, stars in a circle, stars scattered like the night sky. The date of the resolution is why we celebrate Flag Day on June 14.
1795: Fifteen Stars, Fifteen Stripes
Vermont and Kentucky joined the union. Congress updated the flag the only way that seemed fair: a star and a stripe for each new state. The 1795 flag carried fifteen of each, and it is the single most famous version of the flag ever made. It was a 15-star, 15-stripe garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry in September 1814 and moved Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
1818: The Rule That Saved the Stripes
The Flag Act of 1818 settled the design logic that still governs the flag today, returning the stripes permanently to 13 in honor of the original colonies, and adding one star for each new state. New stars are added on the Fourth of July following a state’s admission.
Thirteen stripes for where the country began. One star for every state it became.
Through the nineteenth century the star field changed constantly as the map filled in, and there was still no official arrangement. It took an executive order by President Taft in 1912 to standardize the flag’s proportions and the orderly rows of stars for the 48-star flag, which then served through two world wars and 47 years, the record at the time.
1959 and 1960: The Last Two Stars
Alaska’s statehood brought a 49-star flag on July 4, 1959, followed by Hawaii. On July 4, 1960, the 50-star flag was raised for the first time.
Its design has a story of its own: a 17-year-old Ohio student named Robert Heft sewed a 50-star flag for a class project in 1958, betting that Alaska and Hawaii would both join the union. His teacher gave him a B minus. Two years later his arrangement was flying over the Capitol.
The 50-star flag has now flown for more than six decades, far longer than any earlier version. Previous designs were a snapshot of a growing country; this one has become the fixed image of America for most living memory, carried to the Moon, planted at the poles, folded into 13 ceremonial triangles at military funerals, and raised over every statehouse each morning.