History Lessons

Texas-sized celebration of many flags

Texas' Lone Star flag

In December 1845 – 170 years ago – Texas joined the United States, bringing with it a state flag and later adding a municipal flag for its capital. If that’s not sufficient, there’s also a college flag for one of Texas’s many institutions of higher education. STATE FLAG The Texas state banner, created six years… continue

History Lessons

Give a flag to friends and family for holidays

Jack Warner (left) accepts a Victory flag from the Merchant Marines

The approach of Christmas and Hanukkah provides an opportunity to give friends and family members a flag, especially if they are now – or once were – in the military. The options are many in a year when three branches of the military are marking a significant anniversary: U.S. MARINES The U.S. Marine Corps was… continue

History Lessons

Remembering Pearl Harbor with flags

A sailor looks at a WWII service flag. (Library of Congress)

One year after the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that launched the U.S. into World War II, Americans commemorated the “day of infamy” with coast-to-coast flags. In Boston, for example, the Bunker Hill Boys Club observed “one minute of silence…in respect of the service men who gave their lives” a year earlier…. continue

History Lessons

Flags flutter from flagstaffs in Flagstaff

City seal of Flagstaff

No city in the U.S. seems more appropriate for an article about flags than Flagstaff, Arizona. Whether it’s a municipal flag, a state flag or the American flag, the town’s name literally lifts them upward. Karl Eberhard, historic preservation officer for the city, explained how the location came to be named after a flagpole. Or,… continue

History Lessons

Family crests, heirloom flags and a president

Washington's bookplate shows his coat of arms. (Mount Vernon)

Think you can’t be as important as a president of the United States? Think again, and raise a family flag with your ancestors’ crest on it to declare to the world that your line is as significant as anyone else’s. And if you don’t have a family crest, you can create your own, just as… continue