The American flag wasn’t at all times revered as it’s in the present day. At the start, it was an afterthought

PHILADELPHIA — In the bed room of the Betsy Ross House, a reconstruction of the place the upholsterer labored on her most well-known fee, a protracted flag with a circle of 13 stars hangs over a Chippendale facet chair and extends throughout the ground. Over the weeks in 1776 wanted to finish the mission, Ross would have possible knelt on the flag, stood on it and handled it extra like an on a regular basis banner – not with the sort of reverence we’d anticipate in the present day.

“She would not have worried about it touching the floor or violating any codes,” says Lisa Moulder, director of the Ross House. “The flag did not have any kind of special symbolism.”

Flags proliferate each July 4. But in contrast to the proper to assemble or trial by jury, their function was not prescribed by the founders. They would have been uncommon throughout early Independence Day celebrations. Only within the mid-Nineteenth century does the U.S. flag turn into a everlasting fixture on the White House, students consider; solely within the mid-Twentieth century was a federal code established for the way it needs to be dealt with and displayed; solely within the Nineteen Sixties did Congress move a regulation making it unlawful to “knowingly” solid “contempt” on the flag.

The flag’s evolution into sacred nationwide image, and the continuing debates round it that encourage a lot ardour and anger, replicate the present occasions of a given second and the nation’s transformation from a free confederation of states into a worldwide superpower.

“The flag was really an afterthought,” says Scot Guenter, creator of “The American Flag, 1777-1924” and a professor emeritus of American Studies at San Jose State University. In the start, Guenter says, the Continental Congress was extra involved about creating a “Great Seal” as a result of it was wanted for papers it will subject.

Congress handed its first flag act on June 14, 1777: “Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.” But the flag is in any other case peripheral to the nation’s beginnings.

PHOTOS: The American flag wasn’t at all times revered as it’s in the present day. At the start, it was an afterthought

A spokesman for Independence Hall in Philadelphia says no information exist of a U.S. flag being current for the signing of the Constitution in 1787, or any indications {that a} nationwide flag would have flown throughout the next decade at what’s now known as Congress Hall – a decade when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital. Researchers at George Washington’s house don’t have any proof that the flag was displayed there in his lifetime. (Volunteers there now often elevate and decrease U.S. flags, that are bought on the reward store as having “flown over Mount Vernon”).

According to the White House Historical Association, no exact date exists for when the flag first had a everlasting house on the presidential residence. Researchers on the historic affiliation say the very best guess is June 29, 1861, early within the Civil War, when President Lincoln devoted a flagpole on the South Grounds.

The Civil War, adopted by the nation’s centennial in 1876, helped mythologize the flag. Americans had been within the temper for an excellent story, and William J. Canby, grandson of Betsy Ross, had one. In a speech given to the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Canby drew upon household reminiscences in narrating the quiet, heroic story of Betsy Ross, who had died little identified past her quick neighborhood.

“As an example of industry, energy and perseverance, and of humble reliance upon providence, though all the trials, which were not few, of her eventful life, the name of Elizabeth Claypoole (her married name at the time of her death) is worthy of being placed on record for the benefit of those who should be similarly circumstanced,” Canby said.

The Ross House payments itself as “the birthplace of the American Flag,” however its origins are unsure. We don’t have any definitive account. Many credit score Francis Hopkinson, a congressman from New Jersey, however others, together with Ross, might have added particulars – and, in contrast to the Declaration of Independence, we now have no authentic artifact. Whether Ross or one other produced the primary one, its final vacation spot is unknown.

“We think it would have ended up on a ship mast, to signify that it was an American ship,” Moulder says.

Ross’ place in historical past additionally stays in query, even amongst authorities establishments. An essay entitled “The Legend of Betsy Ross,” on the web site for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, says her story is “shrouded in as much legend as fact,” with no substantial proof of her involvement. Says the museum: “While it makes for a nice story, sadly, it is most likely false.”

Ross, who died in 1836, left behind no diary or up to date accounts of her whereabouts, officers on the Ross House acknowledge. But she was very a lot an actual one who produced numerous flags earlier than and after the alleged time she was approached by a fee that included George Washington and requested to stitch a flag to signify the brand new nation. Officials on the Ross home don’t have any direct proof of Washington contacting Ross in 1776, however they notice {that a} ledger unearthed in 2015 revealed Washington had engaged in enterprise two years earlier with Ross and her husband and fellow upholster, John Ross.

“We know that Washington wanted the Rosses to make bedrooms curtains for his home in Mount Vernon,” Moulder says. “And curtains are the kind of job that Betsy would have taken on.”

As the nation grew extra nationalized and nationalistic, Ross was added to the early pantheon and the flag’s presence expanded like a lot territory throughout the continent – into state ceremonies and buildings, sporting occasions, colleges and personal houses.

In the midst of fierce labor battles and rising fears of immigration, the minister Francis Bellamy composed the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. It was tied to the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ touchdown but in addition, as historian Richard White has written, addressed “a time of intense social conflict in an increasingly diverse nation” and was meant ”as a hopeful affirmation of America’s future.”

Throughout the Twentieth century, laws had been proposed and enacted. The first nationwide flag code was drafted in 1923 and signed into regulation by President Franklin D. Roosevelt throughout World War II, with suggestions on all the things from the way to salute the flag to the way to carry it. In the mid-Fifties, President Dwight Eisenhower endorsed laws including “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, a Cold War motion with origins 20 years earlier.

“In the 1930s, you had conservatives arguing that the New Deal represented slavery and that the counterpoint was freedom under God,” says Kevin M. Kruse, a professor of historical past at Princeton University whose books embody “One Nation Under God,” revealed in 2015. “So there was a corporate-fueled drive against the regulatory state and it takes on religious tones. In the 1950s, that gets appropriated by the anti-communists.”

Burning American flags dates again a minimum of to the Civil War. But solely in July 1968, in response to Vietnam War protesters, did Congress move laws making it unlawful (the Supreme Court overturned the ban in 1989) and including different restrictions in opposition to “publicly mutilating” the flag. Three months later, the novel activist Abbie Hoffman was arrested for carrying a Stars and Stripes shirt, expenses later dropped on enchantment.

“He showed up in the shirt for a meeting of the House Committee on Un-American Activities,” says Mark Kurlansky, creator of “1968: The Year That Rocked the World,” a social historical past. “He just thought it would be funny.”

Last month, the Biden administration hosted a Pride Day gathering on the White House South Lawn and hung a Pride Progress flag between U.S. flags on the Truman balcony. Rep. Mike Collins, a Georgia Republican, denounced the prominence of an “alphabet cult battle flag.” Other Republicans alleged that Biden officers had damaged federal laws, which name for the American flag to be “at the center and at the highest point” when grouped with different flags. Defenders of Biden famous {that a} U.S. flag was flying above from atop the White House.