One of a small number of 48-starred 'flags of peace' to have ever been produced by Wayne Whipple.
As early as 1910 Wayne Whipple of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, started making and promoting his design for a United States flag of 46 stars. It had a distinctive star arrangement indicating that its owner favored peace throughout the world. The pattern that Whipple chose was not unlike some of the concentric-ringed designs for star patterns that had been common during the Civil War. In Whipple's design, the 13 original states are represented by a great 6-pointed star in the center of the canton, which is reminiscent of the pattern displayed over the eagle's head in the coat of arms of the United States.

This central grouping is surrounded by a circle of 25 stars, representing the states admitted from 1791 through to 1876. Eight other stars are fixed in pairs in each corner of the canton to represent the states that joined the Union after 1876. Two years later in 1878, Whipple added two more stars to his design, re-arranging the, now, ten stars representing the newer Union states into a circle that looped around the inner ring of 25. Though Whipple would continue to advocate his 'flag of peace' for years, only a few were ever made in accordance with his plan.

Exhibition History:

First Presidio Exhibit

Chicago Meeting December, 2003
(ZFC0635)
48-Star United States Peace Flag

Presidential Debate
Washington University at St. Louis
October, 2004

This flag's image was displayed in the presentation at the 6th Annual Flag Symposium sponsored by The Flag House and Star Spangled Banner Museum, in Baltimore, MD, April 9, 2005. The presentation was made by Howard Madaus on The Other 48s a look at the evolution of the 48 star US Flag and the various star patterns it engendered.

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. 117.

Provenance: Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection in 2002 from the Mastai Flag Collection through auction at South Bay Auction of New York City.

ZFC Significant Flag
Item is Framed

Souces:


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.

Whipple, Wayne, The Story of the American Flag, Philadelphia, Henry Altemus Co., 1910.

Druckman, Nancy, Dr. Kenneth Jeffery Kohn, American flags: Designs For a Young Nation, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 2003.

Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, Our Unknown Flag: Almost 250 Flags and Artifacts from the famous Mastai Collection, New York, Boleslaw Mastai, Amagansett, Exhibited 14 June -28 July 1978US Customhouse, Plaza Lever, 6 World trade Center

Whipple, Blaine, © 1999, The Whipple Flag, The Whipple Home Page, 30 October 2011, from:
http://www.whipple.org/blaine/whippleflag.html

The Whipple Flag, Wayne Whipple, 30 October 2011, from: http://www.waynewhipple.com/flag.html

The Whipple Flag, 15 Generations of Whipples, 30 October 2011, from: http://blainewhipple.com/uncategorized/the-whipple-flag/

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection