Philadelphia Antiques & Art Show 2017

P eople are often surprised to learn that before 1912, lack of a specific design for the American national flag left a great deal open to interpretation and imagination. Given the level of respect our flag demands today, it is difficult to conceive that for the first 135 years of its existence, the star pattern was left up to the whims of its maker. The same was true of the number of points on the stars, not to mention all aspects of the flag’s proportions and the selected shades of red and blue. Circular star patterns were a favorite in the period between the Civil War (1861-65) and the 1876 anniversary of our nation’s independence. Occasionally the stars formed one large star, termed the Great Star or sometimes the Great Flower pattern. Then there are rarer patterns still. Among these are circles within squares, pentagons, ovals, and completely random patterns. There are diamonds, shields, snowflakes, and starbursts. In rare instances, the stars even formed letters and numbers to spell words and dates, such as a “U” for “Union” or “1776–1876.” All manner of arrangements in rows and columns are encountered, but the stars tipped this way and that and seldom did they all point upward. Given the liberties Americans were afforded in flag design, it is not so difficult to understand why a tasteful degree of text and graphics was almost as permissible as the stripes and stars themselves. American presidential candidates began using the red, white, and blue as a medium for printed campaign advertising as early as 1840. The first on record were made for William Henry Harrison, who The Evolution of the Design of the American National Flag From 1767 - 1912, as it Relates to Collecting Antique Examples ✷ 110 ✷ The largest of all known Lincoln Campaign Portrait Flags; one-of-A-kind among known examples, ca 1860. Photo courtesy Jeff R. Bridgman Antiques, Inc. by Jeff R. Bridgman