21 Star U.S. "Grand Luminary" Flag, 1818 - 1819, former Norm Flayderman Collection.
The 21-star Grand Luminary flag represented the new state of Illinois, admitted in 1818 when James Monroe was president. It was officially in use for only one year, replaced in 1820 when Maine and Alabama joined the Union.

As previously mentioned, on December 3rd, 1818, Illinois was admitted into the Union as the 21st state. Hence, in accordance with the provisions of the Flag Act of 1818, on July 4th, 1819, a new United States flag with twenty-one stars became official. The makers of this flag evidently were unable to secure wool bunting for the field and canton of the flag they needed and made it entirely of cotton instead. Rather than beginning with a red stripe, they chose to commence the alternating stripes with a white stripe. (While this is heraldically proper, it is unlikely that the makers of this flag knew or cared about the intricacies of heraldry.) Although commencing and ending the United States flag with horizontal red stripes was fast becoming the tradition, nothing in the adoptive legislation specified that the red stripes took this precedence. The makers of this flag chose to arrange the stars in the form of a grand luminary. This pattern, emphasizing the notion of from many one (the direct translation of our Latin national motto E Pluribus Unum) had been popularized during the debate over the 1818 Flag Act by Captain S.G. Reid, whose wife had sewn the first flag of the new design that flew over Congress. Mrs. Reid’s flag bore its twenty stars in this same grand luminary pattern; however, Congress chose not to incorporate the star pattern as part of its legislation. Nevertheless, the grand luminary design remained popular among some flag manufacturers for another sixty years.

This flag is perhaps the most attractive design ever for the Stars and called by Captain Samuel S. C. Reid the"Great Luminary Flag." The stars were arranged to form a large star, sometimes with one central star surrounded by smaller ones or sometimes all of the same size. An unusual characteristic of this flag is the white stripes at the top and bottom of this flag. The law at that time didn't require or forbid such variations, although they appear in very few known flags.

Exhibition History:
First Presidio Exhibit
(ZFC0422)
Twenty-One-Star ("Grand Luminary") United States Flag

Second Presidio Exhibit, 2003 - Gallery II
(ZFC0422)
21-Star "Grand Luminary" United States Flag

Publication History:
Crump, Anne, David Studarus, photographer, "A Grand Old Obsession." American Spirit: Daughters of the American revolution Magazine: July/August 2003: P.20.

Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006, p. 38.

Provenance:
• Flayderman Collection, Fort Lauderdale, FL, until 1997.
• Sold via Butterfields & Butterfields, San Francisco, CA, to the Zaricor Flag Collection 1997.
Deaccessed Heritage Auctions - 13 November 2023 - Auction 6276

Sources:


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.

Cooper, Grace Rogers, Thirteen-Star Flags: Keys to Identification, Smithsonian Institution Press, City of Washington, 1973.

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

N. FLAYDERMAN & CO., INC., 26 October 2011, from: http://www.flayderman.com/#top

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection