[Peter Ansoff]

If you watched the presidential inauguration today, you probably noticed the five large US flags on the west front of the Capitol building. The center one was a modern 50-star flag. Flanking it were two 21-star flags, symbolizing President Obama's home state of Illlinois which was the 21st state. (Illinois became a state in December 1818, and the 21st star was added to the flag on July 4th 1819. The 21-star flag was only official for one year; Alabama achieved statehood in December 1819 and the 22nd star was added on the following July 4th.) The outer two were 13-star flags with the stars in a circle. This is popularly known as the "Betsy Ross" flag, although there is not evidence the she ever made a flag like this.

Attached is a photo of the flags that we flew on our house today. The center is a large (G-Spec) US flag, and the others are the state flags of Hawaii (the president's birthplace) and Illinois.

Peter Ansoff

[american_flag_uk]

Thanks for answering that... I had been sitting wondering why there was 21 star flags there! That clears it up nicely!

Now next thing to wonder about is why those flags have such short star sields.. how they dont even extend a 1/3 of the way down the flag!

Wonder if they like that very 'stripey' look!

[Peter Ansoff]

Actually, this raises some interesting questions. First, is it a standard tradition at presidental inaugurations to display the "admittance flag" of the new president's home state? I just did some quick surfing for images of the two Bush inaugurations, and, while it's hard to tell, it looks a bit like the inside flanking flags might have the 28 stars for Texas.

Assuming that this is the tradition, what do they do when the president's state was one of several admitted at the same time? For example, New Mexico was the 47th state, but there never was an official 47-star flag, because Arizona was admitted a month later and the flag changed from 46 to 48 on the following 4th of July. If the incoming president were from New Mexico, would they display a flag that never officially existed?

Also, what would they do if the new president were from one of the original 13 states? Vice-President Biden is from Delaware, which is usually counted as the first state (it really wasn't, but that's another story). If he were ever elected president, would they display one-star flags on the Capitol?

Peter Ansoff

[american_flag_uk]

Yes- this is a good point!

The 1st thought I have is that they would perhaps display the state flag of said president...

[Peter Ansoff]

Some further thoughts on this:

1. This photo

Captured

of President Clinton's inauguration shows "flanking flags" with 25 stars, which is correct for his state of Arkansas. However, this one:

Captured

from President Reagan's inauguration appears to show no US flags at all -- they are all red-white-red banners like the ones on the far ends of later displays. (Reagan's would presumably have had 31 stars for California). The only intervening inauguration would have been for George H.W. Bush -- can anyone come up with a photo from that day?

2. As I count it, the last president who would have required a "non-official" flag would have been Carter in 1977. Georgia was the 4th state to ratify the Constitution, but of course there never was a 4-star flag.

Any more ideas?

Peter Ansoff

[mattsaccount]

Although I don't have anything to contribute to Peter's questions, I just wanted to comment that I signed up to get a flag flown at the capitol on the 20th, even if it was only for 10 seconds I imagine the guy who deals with those requests was busier than usual.

[american_flag_uk]

What! m- so they were putting flags up and down the poles all day for people to have them flown for 10 seconds each???? that sounds crazy lol

[mattsaccount]

It turns out that US citizens can contact their senator/representative and ask them to have a flag flown over the capitol for a nominal fee (~$15). There are special poles somewhere around there where they do it. Since they typically have several hundred requests a day, I suspect each flag is probably only "flown" for a few seconds before they take it down and do the next one. It's a bit silly, but they make nice gifts, and I figured that given the historic nature of this particular election it would be neat to get one.

Just Google "flags flown over capitol" or something like that to find out more, if you're interested.