History of the American Flag: From Betsy Ross to Today

From a 13-star banner sewn in a Philadelphia parlor to the 50-star flag that flew on the moon — the full story of the Stars and Stripes.

Few symbols carry the emotional weight of the American flag. To one citizen it represents the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy. To another it stands for the Constitution, or the small white church on the corner, or a grandfather who came back from Korea and never quite came back. Whatever it stands for, the flag belongs to all of us — and like the country itself, it has a story worth telling carefully.

Before the Stars and Stripes: 1775–1777

When the colonies began organizing for war in the spring of 1775, there was no American flag — because there was, as yet, no America. The Continental Army marched under a patchwork of regional banners, militia flags, and modified British ensigns. The Grand Union Flag, raised by George Washington over his headquarters at Prospect Hill in January 1776, kept the Union Jack in its canton and added thirteen red and white stripes. It was a flag of rebellion, not yet of independence.

The Flag Resolution of 1777

On June 14, 1777 — the date the United States still marks as Flag Day — the Continental Congress passed a short resolution: "Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." That's the entire founding text. The earliest flags were sewn however their makers thought best, which is why surviving examples show stars in rows, in circles, in scattered constellations.

Did Betsy Ross Sew the First Flag?

The Betsy Ross story is one of the most famous in American folklore — and one of the most contested. The tale comes from her grandson, William Canby, who in 1870 told the Historical Society of Pennsylvania that George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross had visited his grandmother's upholstery shop in Philadelphia in the spring of 1776 and commissioned her to make a flag from a sketch. Canby's account is the only source — there is no contemporary record of the meeting, no surviving original flag, and no entry in Washington's papers.

Growing with the Country: 1795–1818

The flag changed as the union changed. When Vermont and Kentucky joined in the 1790s, Congress added two stars and two stripes, producing the famous 15-stripe "Star-Spangled Banner" that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814 and inspired Francis Scott Key. By 1818 Congress realized the design couldn't keep adding stripes for every new state. The Flag Act of 1818 fixed the stripes at thirteen and ruled that a new star would be added on the Fourth of July following each new state's admission.

From 48 Stars to 50

For most of the twentieth century, the flag carried 48 stars. Alaska's admission in January 1959 produced a 49-star flag that flew for exactly one year. Hawaii's admission triggered the current design — nine alternating rows of six and five stars, totaling fifty — which became official on July 4, 1960. That 50-star design has now flown longer than any previous version. It was planted on the surface of the moon by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.

The Meaning of the Colors

The colors weren't officially explained until 1782, when Charles Thomson described the symbolism of the Great Seal: "White signifies purity and innocence. Red, hardiness and valor. Blue, vigilance, perseverance and justice." The thirteen stripes honor the original colonies. The fifty stars honor the states of the Union — "a new constellation," as the 1777 resolution put it. The flag is not a coat of arms inherited from a king. It is a deliberate arrangement of equals, each one shining on its own.

Our Stars and Stripes collection includes both traditional and modern interpretations, all printed on archival canvas and made in the United States.

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