18 Star U.S. Abolitionist Exclusionary Flag - Isaac Hayes Arctic Expedition, 1860.
This flag flew on the schooner United States when it departed Boston harbor in 1860 on the Hayes Arctic Expedition. Only 18 stars, arranged in two concentric rings around a central star, representing union, despite the fact that 33 stars should have been represented in the canton. Given the Boston origins of the expedition, it is probable that the makers of this flag excluded stars for the 15 slave states from the union of this flag. During late 1860, rabid secessionists in several Southern states were already applying the same principle in reverse, making United States flags with only 15 stars (i.e. one for each of the slave states).

On the fourth day of March, 1861, Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes Hayes also hoisted this flag in honor of Abraham Lincoln, who was supposed to be the President of the United States, though the fact was not known until August 14, when the expedition arrived at Uppernavick on its return. The flag was made by F. L. Harris, and a curious circumstance connected with it is, that it was made with only eighteen stars, from lack of material. When the news of the election of Lincoln was received, five months afterwards, it was found that a rebellion had broken out in the Southern States, leaving only about eighteen States true to the Union.

Dr. Hayes returned from the Arctic Expedition to join the Union Army during the Civil War. Commissioned as a major and assigned as a surgeon to the Sattwell General Hospital in Philadelphia, he was eventually brevetted colonel for his service. He returned to the Arctic once more after the war before settling in New York City, which he represented in the New York State Assembly, until his death in 1881.

Exhibition History:

First Presidio Exhibit
(ZFC0630)
18-Star United States "Exclusionary Flag"

Exhibited in The American Flag, I and II.

Second Presidio Exhibit, 2003 Gallery III
(ZFC0630)
18-Star United States "Exclusionary Flag"

Private Showing
11 November 2008
Tiger 21 Meeting, Muir Room
Four Seasons Hotel, San Francisco, CA

Publication History:
Preble, Rear Admiral George Henry, History of the Flag of the United States, Boston, A. Williams & Co., 1880, P.387-388.

Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006, p. 61.
Depicted in Mastai (1973), pp. 78-79.
Depicted in The American Flag, p. 61


Provenance:
• Made by F. L. Harris,1860/61.
• Dr. Isaac Hayes, 1861.
• 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.


Sources: