Vexillarium is a Latin based word meaning Flag Room. It might also be translated into the naval term, Flag Locker. With the opening of Vexillarium, I welcome you into my Flag Locker.A 48-star mystery
The Courthouse in Grant County, Minnesota was built in 1905. On June 24, 2005, in a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Courthouse, the time capsule placed in the corner stone was removed and opened.
What the people who opened the time capsule found has presented a mystery: a 48-star flag. In 1905 there were only 45 states in the United States, meaning that the U.S. flag would only have had 45 stars on it.
posted by Devereaux @ 4:37 am
3 comments
3 Comments:
Forty-Eight star flags did not originate in 1912, or even 1911. The Staggered version was common beginning after the Spanish-American War, with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Phillippines being commemorated with the 3 "unofficial" stars. In my collection I have staggered 48-star flags with penciled dates well in advance of 1911, plus a well-known patriotic postcard showing a little girl holding two such 48-star flags - the card was posmarked 1906. Although it does not surprise me to read of a 48 star flag from 1905, I do find it odd that the builders did not include a note indicating that this was the "flag of the future" or some other explanation of why they selected that flag. Regards, Nick Artimovich
Wait, please explain the "3 unofficial stars" commemorating the Phillippines.
So you mean to say that, in anticipation of three US states being formed out of the Phillippines, folks were using 48 star flags then? Or they were assigning to the Phillippines three honorary stars in our constallation of states? Thanks
Al Cavalari
Al,
What Nick wrote was that the three unofficial stars represented Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines.
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