U.S. 31 Stars Flag, Storm Flag, 1851 - 1858.

An unusual 31-star U.S. Storm Flag, diagonal rows of stars.
This flag has an unusual star pattern, somewhat similar to the truncated diamond employed on U.S. military garrison flags of the same period. California became the 31st state in 1850, with its star being added to the United States' flag officially in the following year of 1851. Thirty-one stars remained official until Minnesota's admission into the Union in 1858. This flag was exhibited in 1996 in Los Gatos, California, at Hillbrook School.

The field consists of thirteen alternating, horizontal red and white wool/bunting stripes; both the topmost and bottommost stripes are red. Inset into the upper, hoist corner is a union/canton of dark blue wool/bunting, measuring 114-116" width by 49-51" height, composed of four widths of bunting pieced horizontally by hand (and with the uppermost of these pieced vertically as well). The canton bears 31 white, 5-pointed cotton stars, each 9" across, sewn by hand on the obverse and reverse sides, in neat diagonal rows. The hoist edge of the flag is finished with a 3" wide white canvas heading, to which ten metal rings have been sewn for attaching the flag to a halyard.

The flag has a wool bunting field and canton with cotton stars, all hand sewn. It measures 113" on the hoist by 222" on the fly (9.5' by 18.5'). This type of storm flag does not appear in military post regulations until 1857. At that time, the size was specified at 10" hoist by 20" fly. By 1854 the U.S. Navy had provided six sizes of ensigns for the U.S. fleet. Five of these were large ensigns for regular usage. Their sizes (hoist to fly) were: 18.75" by 36"; 16.75" by 32"; 14.5" by 28"; 13" by 25"; and 11.5" by 22". Like the Army, the Navy also provided a Storm Ensign. It measured 8.25" by 16". As in the Army flags, and as in all of these Navy flags, the canton was to extend through the seventh stripe from the top. While the canton dimensions on the fly for Army flags were to be one-third of that dimension, on Navy flags the canton was to extend four-tenths of that distance. On this particular flag, the cantons distance on the fly measures slightly more than one-half the whole dimension of the fly. This would suggest that the flag, while close to the storm flag of both services dimensionally, is not actually a military or naval issue flag. The ten metal rings along its heading, however, clearly indicate that it was to be flown from a halyard on a pole.

Thie flag is part of the Howard Michael Madaus sub-collection of Civil War Military Flags which was assembled from a variety of sources over a thirty year period of collecting (1970-2000), before being acquired by the Zaricor Collection in 2000. The sub-collection attempts to present an example of each of the major types of depot contractor regulation flags and colors carried by Union forces at the basic unit level, i.e. regiment, battalion, company, and battery, as well as the types of general military flags.

This sub-collection (Howard Michael Madaus collection) added to the Zaricor Civil War collection is the largest and (while not complete) most comprehensive collection of the military flags carried by the Union Army during the Civil War outside of state repositories designated by the War Department for the deposit of flags after the War or in public museum collections. In fact this private collection is larger and more comprehensive than many of the public museum collections in the United States.

Exhibition History:
Hillbrook School
Los Gatos, CA
June 1996

Baltimore Star Spangled Banner Flag House 3/2004
31-Star United States Flag

Presidential Debate
Washington University at St. Louis
October 2004

Provenance:
• Acquired by Howard M. Madaus, Cody, WY.
• Acquired by purchase from Howard M. Madaus, Cody, WY. by Zaricor Flag Collection, 1995.


ZFC Significant Flag

Sources:

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Madaus, Howard M.- Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict, VZ Publications, Santa Cruz, 2006.

Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The Stars and The Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the republic to the Present, Knopf, New York, 1973.

31 Star Flag - (1851-1858) (U.S.), Flags of the World, 11 November 2011, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-1851.html

Madaus, Howard M., letter to Ben Zaricor, 28 April 1995, Zaricor Flag Collection Archives.

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection

Hoist & Fly
Width of Hoist	113
Length of Fly	222

Union/Canton
Width of Union/Canton	51
Length of Union/Canton	116

Stars
Size of Stars	9

Stripes
Width of 1st Stripe	8.5
Width of 3rd Stripe	8.5
Width of 8th Stripe	8.5
Width of Last Stripe	8.5
Size of Hoist	2.75

Frame
Is it framed?	no

Stars
Number of Stars	31
How are the stars embeded?	Sewn
Are there stars on obverse?	yes
Are there stars on reverse?	yes

Stripes
Number of Stripes	13
Color of Top Stripe	Red
Color of Bottom Stripe	Red
Has a Blood Stripe?	yes

Nationality
Nation Represented	United States

Fabric
Fabric	Wool
Comments on Fabric	Bunting

Stitching
Stitching	Hand

Thread
Thread Material	Cotton

Weave
Type of Weave	Plain

Attachment
Comments on Method of Attachmen	11 iron rings sewn into hoist.
Method of Attachment	Rings

Applica
Applique Sides	Single Faced = Mirror Image Reverse

Documentation
Research Documents
Public Copy & Signs

Condition
Condition	Good
Damage	Minor repairs with holes, flag is soiled
Displayable	yes

Date
Date	circa 1851

Exhibits
Exhibition Copy	Baltimore Star Spangled Banner Flag House 3/2004 31-Star United States Flag Date: 1851-1857 (California was admitted to statehood on September 9, 1850) Media: Wool bunting field and canton with cotton stars, all hand sewn. Size: 113" on the hoist by 222" on the fly. (9.5' by 18.5') Comment: The storm flag does not appear in military post regulations until 1857. At that time, the size was specified at 10" hoist by 20" fly. By 1854 the U.S. Navy provided six sizes of ensigns for the U.S. fleet. Five of these were large ensigns for regular usage. Their sizes (hoist to fly) were: 18.75" by 36"; 16.75" by 32"; 14.5" by 28"; 13" by 25"; and 11.5" by 22". Like the Army, the Navy also provided a Storm Ensign. It measured 8.25" by 16". As in the Army flags, in all of these Navy flags, the canton was to extend through the seventh stripe from the top. While the cantons distance on the fly for Army flags was to be one-third of that dimension, on Navy flags the canton was to extend four-tenths of that distance. On this particular flag, the cantons distance on the fly measures slightly more than one-half the whole dimension of the fly. This would suggest that the flag, while close to the storm flag dimensions for both services is not a military flag. The ten metal rings along its heading, however, clearly indicate that it was to be flown from a halyard on a pole. Provenance: Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection in 1995 from H. Madaus of Cody, Wyoming. American Maritime Flags of the 19th Century Ships and coastal installations (both governmental and private) require flags that can be identified from great distances. Recognition was achieved during the nineteenth century by providing these vessels and facilities with flags that were especially large. Exhibited here are several American flags related to such vessels or facilities from the period 1818 to 1893. They are all large bunting flags. Generally speaking, a large flag is one that is too unwieldy to be carried by one person if the flag is attached to a staff meant to be carried by single individual. Until 1854 in the British Army, and until 1895 in the American Army, military colors carried by units on foot were made of silk and measured no more than 6 feet on the staff by 6 feet 6 inches on the fly. Those dimension essentially a flag with an area encompassing slightly more than four square yards of cloth were deemed the maximum size for transport by an individual on a staff. Most of the flags in this exhibit exceed those parameters. Due to their size, large flags such as these are difficult to display and are seldom sought by collectors. Museums often relegate them to perpetual storage. This exhibit is unusual, therefore, in that it displays so many of these flags in one place. This exhibit is sponsored by the Veninga-Zaricor family and Good Earth Teas, Santa Cruz, CA; The Flag Center, Presidio of San Francisco, CA; and the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, Baltimore, MD. Presidential Debate Washington University at St. Louis October 2004 31-Star United States Flag California Admitted (1851-1858) California became the 31st state in 1850 upsetting the delicate balance between free and slave states and signaling an end of The Missouri Compromise of 1820. For nearly forty years politicians in the U.S. Senate had maintained a balance between the number of slave and free states entering the Union in order to maintain parity among opponents and proponents of slavery. Provisions of the Compromise of 1850 ended that system. That compromise allowed California to enter the Union as a free state. While the country now spanned From Sea to Shinning Sea, the gathering storm over slavery threatened to tear the country apart. Striking examples of this can be seen in the flags New England abolitionists created during this period that eliminated the stars for all 15 slave states from the canton, producing unofficial 16-star U.S. flags. These flags are now called exclusionary flags.
Exhibition Images	Washington University 2004 Presidential Debate Poster Baltimore Exhibit, 2004