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 This
exceptional folky American Flag was made in Lebanon,
Indiana to celebrate the statehood of Colorado as the
38th state. Oral provenance is that the flag was made
for the 4th of July in 1876, the year of the Centennial.
Although the official star count at the time of the
Centennial stood at 37, the process of introducing
Colorado into the Union began well before the actual
induction by President Grant on August 1, 1876. In
December, 1873, President Grant began the process by
recommending Colorado for statehood in a message to
Congress. On June 8, 1874, Colorado Territorial Delegate
Jerome Chaffee rushed an enabling bill through the House
of Representatives, but the bill stalled in the Senate.
By 1876, political conditions improved sufficiently to
secure the support for statehood. The Colorado
Constitutional Convention produced and adopted a state
constitution in March, 1876, and on July 1, 1876, just
three days before the Centennial, the territory voted
for statehood, 15,443 in favor, to 4,052 opposed.
It was in this climate of anticipation of Colorado
Statehood that this beautiful flag was produced. The
stars form a unique 5-6-6-3-6-6-6 pattern with a large
center star representing Colorado. The shape of the
stars are extremely whimsical, looking like fat freely
rotating starfish. They are double-appliquéd onto a
beautiful cornflower blue canton. The canton is rests on
the sixth stripe, and stands only five stripes high,
which is unusual and adds to the make-do charm of the
flag. The broad, long stripes and relatively small
starry canton are reminiscent of earlier period American
Flags. The entire flag is made of cotton, which is
common among homemade flags of the period, since wool
bunting was not widely available and silk was expensive.
Overall, it survives as a beautiful flag with a unique
configuration of stars, specific provenance to specific
location and a fascinating time in American history.
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