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In my experience, this
beautiful flag best represents the height of exuberance
and spectacular flag making during the period of the
American Centennial in 1876. While medallion flags
of any style are considered rare, hand sewn medallion
flags with variable sized stars are rare in the extreme,
with only a handful of examples known. The
elongated oval medallion and the clear difference in the
size of the stars makes this flag even more striking and
most likely, unique. The flag was found in
the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area which is fitting,
considering that Philadelphia was the site of the 1876
American Centennial Exposition. About
10 million visitors attended the Exposition, which
represented about 20% of the American population at the
time. Eager to outdo themselves, flag makers of
the period produced many unique star patterns in the 38
star count, with medallion style flags hitting the
height of their popularity. This certainly is one
of the most striking flags of the age.
This flag is clearly a
professionally manufactured flag, possibly made by
Horstmann Brothers of Philadelphia, one of the largest
military outfitters and flag makers in the country at
the time. It is unusual to find a flag of this
period that has entirely hand sewn stars and stripes,
but this flag does. By this time, machine stitched
stripes were commonplace on manufactured flags, though
hand stitched stars still prevailed. With the
exception of some machine stitching along the fly end of
the flag, which most likely is a the result of a
turn-back repair, the flag is hand stitched throughout.
The wide canvas sleeve hoist holds its original rope,
which has steel rings on both ends for raising the flag.
The flag is in exceptional condition, with no mothing
and only very little wear to the upper and lower tips of
the stripes on the fly end. Except for some mellow
browning of the cotton stars, it is in nearly the same
condition it was in when it was manufactured over 130
years ago. It is quite possibly the only example
of its kind that survives today, and is one of the most
graphical and captivating flags of the American
Centennial Era. |
