Mosaic of Freedom

The American flag is defined by numbers. Executive Order 10834, signed by President Eisenhower on August 21, 1959, the day Hawaii became a state, fixes the official geometry. If the flag is 1 unit tall, it is 1.9 units long. Each stripe is 1/13 of the height. The blue union spans seven stripes, 7/13 of the height, and runs 0.76 of the height along the top.

Most flags sold for porches ignore those numbers and come in at 3 by 5 feet. The order binds federal agencies, not flag shops.

This picture shows its construction lines instead of hiding them.

The canvas is laid out like a draftsman's sheet in 1930s Art Deco style: a thin gold border, a grid split into quarters, compass arcs and circles across the whole field. At upper left a ring of eleven cream stars circles a larger one, with a gold spiral curling between them. At upper right a stylized eagle head looks left, its neck turning into a diagonal band. Red and cream stripes sweep up from the lower left like a ribbon, and at lower right a single star sits above a small arched doorway. Count every star and you get thirteen. It looks like a lobby panel in an old federal building.