A 26-Star U.S. flag commemorating the addition of Michigan to the Union. (July 4, 1837 - July 3, 1845).
A 26-Star American national flag commemorating the addition of Michigan to the Union, January 26, 1837, with stars of various sizes arranged in a tilted "Great Star". This flag is thought to be one of the earliest examples of printed parade flags. Only a few others from this period are known to exist.
When Michigan entered into the Union as its thirteenth free state and its twenty-sixth overall state on January 26th, 1837, it complimented Arkansas admission as the thirteenth slave state and twenty-fifth state of the Union in June of the year before. These two admissions retained the balance that had been established in Henry Clays Missouri Compromise of 1820. By that Compromise Missouri had entered the Union in August of 1821, as a slave state to balance the admission of Maine as a free state in March of 1820. The balancing act would continue until 1850. The twenty-six-star flag became the eighth official flag of the United States and remained in official service for thirteen years. During its reign the flag would be transformed into a political campaign device during the election of 1840, and four years later during the Kensington Riots in Philadelphia the Know Nothing Movement as a symbol of their anti-foreign, anti-Catholic campaign would embrace it.
Printing color on silk or cotton fabrics initially employed wooden blocks that were hand-cut in order to leave a raised surface bearing the desired pattern. That design would be covered with ink or dye and pressed down on a piece of fabric, leaving an impression made by the raised section of the block. Finding a wood with a sufficiently porous surface to hold the right amount of dye proved difficult and too little or too much dye could result in a ruined impression. An alternative technique used the raised area to press down on the fabric to prevent the dye from penetrating into the pressed-upon surface; this process was known as press-dyeing.
Another technique covered the raised surface with wax or some similar substance that was applied to the fabric, causing it to resist the dyes added afterward; this was known as resist-dyeing. Neither system worked very well with fabrics until John Holt patented improvements in the period 1865-1870. Nevertheless presentable, inexpensive flags were mass-produced by these processes in the two decades before Holt's improvements became available. Mastai #81.
Exhibition History:
First Presidio Exhibit
(ZFC0634)
"Grand Luminary" Twenty-Six-Star United States Flag
Second Presidio Exhibit, 2003 - Gallery II
(ZFC0634)
26-Star United States Flag
Chicago Meeting - December, 2003
(ZFC0634)
26-Star United States Flag
Presidential Debate -
Washington University at St. Louis
October, 2004
(ZFC0634)
Museum of Art & History
Santa Cruz, CA
Santa Cruz Collects
11 August - 25 November 2012
Publication History:
Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006, p. 42.
Druckman, Nancy, Jeffery Kohn, The American Flag: Designs for a Young Nation, New York, Abrams, 2003.P.22.
Depicted in Mastai (1973), p. 102.Depicted in 1973 cat. p. 41, #43.
Depicted in American Flags, p. 22.
Depicted in The American Flag, p.42.
Provenance:
• Acquired by Mr. & Mrs. Boleslaw & Marie-Louise D'Otrange Mastai, New York City, and Amagansett, NY, The Mastai Collection, until 2002.
• Sold via Sotheby's Auction in New York City to the Zaricor Flag Collection, 2002.
ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed
Sources: