Exhibits Title information is available upon specific request. Additional information available upon request to researchers, writers and others demonstrating special circumstances. In some situations, information may not be available.

Exhibition Copy

Baltimore Star Spangled Banner Flag House 3/2004 (ZFC0625) 20-Star United States Flag Date: 1818 (Mississippi admitted to statehood on December 10, 1817) Media: Wool bunting field and canton with cotton stars, all hand sewn. Size: 58" on the hoist by 106" on the fly (5' by 9') Comment: On the 4th of April 1818, the United States Congress altered for the third time the design of the national flag of the United States. Henceforth, its field would consist of only thirteen alternating red and white stripes. The number of stars in the blue canton, however, would be twenty, with new states being recognized in the canton by the addition of a star on the 4th of July after the state's admission. Although a specific "grand luminary" star design had been proposed in the course of the legislation, no star pattern was delineated in the bill's final form. On May 18th, 1818, The U.S. Navy commissioners proposed that the Navy ensigns bear the twenty stars then forming the Union in four staggered horizontal rows of five stars each. However, President James Monroe disliked that pattern, and on September 18th, the Navy ordered that all of the flags should have their stars arranged in four horizontal rows of five stars each, all five in vertical alignments with the top row. Provenance: Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection in 2002 from the Mastai Collection through auction at Sotheby's of New York, New York. (ZFC0625) American Maritime Flags of the 19th Century Ships and coastal installations (both governmental and private) require flags that can be identified from great distances. Recognition was achieved during the nineteenth century by providing these vessels and facilities with flags that were especially large. Exhibited here are several American flags related to such vessels or facilities from the period 1818 to 1893. They are all large bunting flags. Generally speaking, a "large" flag is one that is too unwieldy to be carried by one person if the flag is attached to a staff meant to be carried by single individual. Until 1854 in the British Army, and until 1895 in the American Army, military colors carried by units on foot were made of silk and measured no more than 6 feet on the staff by 6 feet 6 inches on the fly. Those dimensions-essentially a flag with an area encompassing slightly more than four square yards of cloth-were deemed the maximum size for transport by an individual on a staff. Most of the flags in this exhibit exceed those parameters. Due to their size, large flags such as these are difficult to display and are seldom sought by collectors. Museums often relegate them to perpetual storage. This exhibit is unusual, therefore, in that it displays so many of these flags in one place. This exhibit is sponsored by the Veninga-Zaricor family and Good Earth® Teas, Santa Cruz, CA; The Flag Center, Presidio of San Francisco, CA; and the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, Baltimore, MD.

Publications Title information is available upon specific request. Additional information available upon request to researchers, writers and others demonstrating special circumstances. In some situations, information may not be available.
Publication Copy	Publication History: Madaus, Howard M., Dr, Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict. Santa Cruz: VZ Publications, 2006, p. 37. "20-Star United States Flag 1818 - Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection in 2002 from the Mastai Flag Collection through auction at Sotheby's of New York City. ZFC0625"
Flag Books	The Stars and The Stripes - Mastai

Title information is available upon specific request. Additional information available upon request to researchers, writers and others demonstrating special circumstances. In some situations, information may not be available.