U.S. 48 Star Flag - Grand Luminary in a single ring.
This home-made, cotton, 48-star Grand Luminary flag has a most unique star pattern; featuring 48 stars arranged in a five-point of 21 stars inside a single ring of 27 stars. Additionally this is an 'Anticipatory' flag, meaning a flag made before there were even 48 states within the Union. Dated 1898, when there were only 45 states in the United States, the flag was made in anticipation of additional states.

The embroidered date "Sept 1898" indicates that the flag was made immediately after hostilities ceased on 12 August 1898; and has led to speculation that the flag's three additional stars represent expansionist aspirations in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines instead of the extant US Territories of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. Whatever the motivations, this flag represents a continued, if unusual, use of the Grand Luminary pattern in the late 19th century.

We know the maker of this flag only by their initials, "C.E.B."

Exhibition History:

The Other 48s, 6th Annual Flag Symposium, The Flag House and Star Spangled Banner Museum, 2005
Baltimore, MD, April, 9 2005: The Zaricor Flag Collection exhibited 14 flags at the 6th Annual Flag Symposium sponsored by The Flag House and Star Spangled Banner Museum. The presentation was made by Howard Madaus entitled "The Other 48s" a look at the evolution of the 48 star United States Flag and the various star patterns it engendered.

Provenance: Acquired at auction from James D. Julia, Fairfield, ME, 4-7 October2004

ZFC Significant Flag

Sources:


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

Samuel Chester Reid, Wikipedia, 24 October 2011, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Chester_Reid

Great Star Flags (U.S.), Flags of the World, 25 October 2011, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-gstar.html

Martucci, David, Great Star Flags, US Flags: Part 5, 25 October 2011, from: http://www.midcoast.com/~martucci/flags/us-hist6.html

American Anti-Imperialist League, Wikipedia, 25 October 2011, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Anti-Imperialist_League

Philippine-American War, Wikipedia, 25 October 2011, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine%E2%80%93American_War

Annexation of Hawaii, 1898, Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, US Department of State, 12 November 2011, from:
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/Hawaii

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection