48 Star U.S. Liberation Flag made in Occupied Belgium, presented during battle to great grandson of Francis Scott Key.
48 Stars: July 4, 1912 July 3, 1959 (statehood: New Mexico January 6, 1912; Arizona February 14, 1912)

This 48 star United States flag is a Liberation Flag, a reference to any flag made in the hope of liberation from an oppressor; most commonly flags of the various allied nations during WWII.

During the Nazi occupation of Belgium, Madame Edith Coort-Fresart and her three daughters (Marguerite-Marie, Marie-Therese, and Francoise) made Allied flags in secret from bed sheets and other materials scavenged in their household. The French Tricolor and British Union Jack were fairly easy to make while the most difficult was the Stars and Stripes. They had to work in secret as they were under scrutiny since their father and husband, Monsieur Paul Coort-Fresart, lawyer of Liege Belgium, was being held by the Germans for his patriotic endeavors. According to family tradition the flag was displayed too soon, and observed by the still present Germans, drawing fire upon the home. Finally, at around 4 P.M. on September 7th, 1944, these women who had taken great risks in making Allied flags were afforded the opportunity to fly them.

On that day, when American troops and Belgian resistance forces drove the Germans out of Liege, the Coort-Fresart family responded by flying the American flag from the window of their home at 44 Rue du Jardin Botanique, Liege on September 7, 1944 before the eyes of the retreating Germans and advancing American and Belgian Marquis who liberated Liege on that date.

That night an American officer, a U.S. Army Major Arthur Tilghman Brice, XVI Corps, 1st Army, stayed at their home. Coincidentally, Major Brice was the great-grandson of Francis Scott Key, who had penned the Star Spangled Banner in 1814. As a token of their thanks for the American role in the liberation of Belgium, the grateful women presented this flag to Major Brice, who brought it home to Baltimore after the war.

This homemade Liberation Flag became a part of the collection of The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House Association, Inc. which was formed in 1927 to operate a museum dedicated to the story of Mary Young Pickersgill who made the enormous 30 x 42-foot Star-Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became our National Anthem. Mary Pickersgill's flag still survives and now hangs at the Smithsonian Institution's, National Museum of American History. As one of the earliest associations dedicated to the study of flags, The Flag House & Star-Spangled Banner Museum also became a repository for flags from other eras, and amassed one of the most significant flag collections in the nation.

Exhibition History:

First Presidio Exhibit
48-Star Home Made United States Flag, From Occupied Belgium
Date: 1944

Second Presidio Exhibit, 2003 - Gallery VI
48-Star United States Flag, Homemade in Occupied Belgium

University of California - Santa Cruz
Board of Councilors Meeting, Rare Flags Exhibit
Santa Cruz, CA
7 June 2012

Provenance:
• Made in occupied Belgium by Madame Edith Coort-Fresart and her three daughters (Marguerite-Marie, Marie-Therese, and Francoise), Liege, Belgium, 1944.
• Presented to U.S. Army Major Arthur Tilghman Brice, XVI Corps, 1st Army, Sept, 1944.
• Gifted to The Star Spangled Banner Flag House & Museum, in 1946.
• Star Spangled Banner Flag House & Museum collection until, 1966.
• Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection from the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House Collection of Baltimore, MD.,1996.



ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed

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