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Short biographies of the article authors for Raven, volume 32.

On November 8, 1860, two days after Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the Young Men’s Southern Rights Club in Savannah, Georgia, spread a banner across the Nathanael Greene Monument in Johnson Square. The top of it read: “Our Motto: Southern Rights and the Equality of the States”. Beneath, a rattlesnake twisted above the words “Don’t Tread On Me”. Thousands gathered around the banner to cheer pro-secession speeches, and as reports from Savannah spread nationwide, secessionists raised similar flags throughout the South. Although the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag had symbolized the American colonies’ unified resolve during the colonial era, by the 1860s its message proved so popular among secessionists, the Alabama Beacon referred to it as “the Flag of the Southern Confederacy” while The Morning Democrat in Davenport, Iowa, described the rattlesnake and ”Don’t Tread on Me” pairing as “the Southern Coat of Arms”. Within a year, Unionists were steadily countering with illustrations of rattlers being stomped, stabbed, and eaten by eagles. Northern poets emphasized Jesus’s words in Luke 10:19 (KJV): “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents.” By the end of 1862 Confederates had lowered their rattlesnake flags and embraced the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Today, most Americans have forgotten the two-year iconographic battle that Unionists fought against the “rattlesnake lords”. This article uses 19th-century newspapers, supplemented with magazines, books, illustrations, and poetry, to tell the full story of this overlooked episode in American history.

The paucity of actual flags in Judaism, despite multiple scriptural and liturgical references, is an anomaly. We review the role of flags in Jewish texts and history, noting the connection between flag-waving and the announcement of the messianic era. This connection, a difficult subject for Jews in the context of Christianity’s enthusiastic adoption of flags, may explain the anomaly. The exception to Judaism’s flag taboo is the minor holiday of Simchat Torah, when children wave flags in a celebratory procession. The origin of this folk custom is obscure and unattested in rabbinic literature, but it appears to date to the 17th century, around the time of the Judaism’s largest messianic outbreak. We hypothesize that Simchat Torah flag-waving arose as a circumscribed indulgence of an otherwise prohibited activity, and that over subsequent centuries this meaning became less intelligible. Judaism’s association between flags and messianism, and the consequent flag-waving taboo, persist to this day. This makes the Simchat Torah flag a Tylorian “survival”, an intact but unintelligible custom.

The world of vexillology has seen two important debates in recent years. The first debate concerns the proper scope of vexillology, in particular whether it should be defined essentially as the “scientific” or “scholarly” study of flags. The second debate concerns the usefulness or desirability of efforts such as Ted Kaye’s criteria for “good flags” and “bad flags” as the primary guides to proper flag design. This paper considers and connects both questions. It argues that most vexillological work is not “scholarly” in the sense that term has come to be understood, but that this is just fine. Nevertheless, to the extent that vexillology does aspire to be a serious scholarly enterprise, the most promising scholarly model for that enterprise is not history or sociology (though a good deal of important historical and sociological work about flags has been done and remains to be done), but aesthetic criticism—art, architecture, literature, music, and the like. But if that’s true, then we need to welcome a rich set of aesthetic, critical, conversations. And that conversation must go way beyond the limits of a single pamphlet.

Flag-related scholarship takes place in many disciplines and is published in many places, beyond those sponsored by NAVA or other members of the International Federation of Vexillological Associations (FIAV). Periodically* Raven provides a bibliography of these works to call attention to the breadth and depth of vexillology (by this or any other name). Although numerous on-line collections have been consulted, this list is certainly not comprehensive. Nevertheless, hopefully it gives a sense of the many aspects of flags, their effects and uses, and how much more there is to be known.

Short biographies of the article authors for Raven, volume 31.

No primary sources support the myth that Confederate supporters used the Crossland banner, a component of the Maryland flag, during the Civil War. The Maryland flag is deeply embedded in the identity and culture of Marylanders. However, its history is convoluted, and the interpretation of its adoption often oversimplified. This article explores the history of the flag of Maryland, especially its role during the Civil War, to explain how the Calvert and Crossland symbols came to be the Maryland state flag. While the history of the Maryland flag found online appears straightforward and broadly held—multiple historians assert that, during the Civil War, Confederate soldiers utilized the Crossland banner to represent the South, while Union soldiers utilized the Calvert banner to represent the North—the story of the Calvert and Crossland arms’ use on flags is much more complex. The online oversimplification of the history of the Maryland flag stems from a lack of primary sources used on credible websites and the projection of personal biases by historians onto historical flags.

Beyond their official documentation, the design and colours of Grenada’s national flag show a strong relationship to Grenada’s history, particularly its African heritage, whether unintended or deliberate. While Prime Minister Eric Gairy and designer Anthony Conrad George disclaimed direct connections, the fundamental colours and field-division of the flag ultimately derive from Africa—the colours from Ethiopia and the adinkra “wind-blown” house symbol, representing resistance, from the Akan people—and from Grenada’s own history. The national flag has become a talisman to Grenada’s people, a symbol which symbolizes the resilience of the country and her people. This article may be the first systematic study of the design of the flag beyond the official documents.

Over 300 American cities and towns are known to have adopted new or redesigned flags to represent their communities between 2015 and 2022. In late 2022, NAVA conducted an online survey asking respondents to rate those flags’ designs on a 0–10 scale. The 2,852 respondents (308 NAVA members and 2,544 public participants) selfreported from 90 countries (71% from the U.S.); their ages distributed widely. Afterwards, NAVA blanketed the country—especially the cities with flags in the survey—with press releases yielding wide media coverage. With average ratings converted to a letter grade, over 30% of the flags got an A or a B, but over 60% of the flags got a D or an F. Analysis of the results not only showed a range of design quality, but also provided insights into how perception of the designs varied across respondent ages, locations, and NAVA membership.

Contrary to popular belief in an unchanging design, the flag of the United States Revenue-Marine, later used by the Revenue Cutter Service then the Customs Service, has varied since its adoption in 1799. Written documents; published images; paintings, engravings, lithographs, and photos of ships; and surviving flags show 13 to 22 stripes, a white but occasionally blue canton, and a great variety of canton decoration. Admiral Preble’s work in the 1870s appears to have standardized the design to the original 1799 specifications.

The “Liberty Flag” dates from before the Revolutionary War. Owned by the Schenectady County Historical Society in Schenectady, New York, the flag was conserved and mounted by Spicer Art Conservation, LLC. It is unique among known Revolutionary War-era flags, as extensive documentation for it exists, including when and where it was first flown along with information about the people associated with its use. Further, this flag was not connected with a military unit or anti-Crown protests; rather, it represented a civic statement. In 1771, Schenectady politicians were focused upon how to allocate and manage common lands rather than on the constitutional issues that were at the forefront for other communities in New York and New England. This focus on common lands arose from local disputes between the more recently-arrived English and earlier settlers of Dutch ancestry. This is also a story of the enduring hold of the Dutch culture through decades of English rule—in particular, how the Dutch concept and understanding of “liberty” was distinct from ideas of individual liberty then prevalent in the “English” colonies. In 1771, thus, the local “liberty” protest by English settlers was more about the use of common lands rather than taxation. Furthermore, consideration of the dyestuffs available for the silk fabric, and its current condition, indicate that the flag, now brown, was originally green (not blue, as widely believed).

Short biographies of the article authors for Raven, volume 30.

The so-called “Pine Tree Flag”, with a white field displaying a pine tree and the “Appeal to Heaven” motto, is part of the traditional pantheon of American Revolutionary War flags. Like many such flags, its actual history has been distorted by misunderstandings and mythology. This paper examines the primary sources for the flag, and sets the flag in its historical context. In particular, it summarizes the history of the best-documented individual example of the Pine Tree Flag, and includes some related preliminary research on flags used by the Massachusetts State Navy during the Revolutionary War. A brief appendix compares the images used on modern reproductions of the flag with typical 18th-century depictions of pine trees.

In 1962, Jamaica was granted independent sovereign realm status from Great Britain. One of the most visible symbols of the newly-independent nation was the new national flag. The Jamaican flag has been understood as a derivation of the British Union Jack, with a different colour scheme. This paper argues that there is another, parallel meaning and symbolism to the Jamaica national flag based in the symbology of the Akan people of Ghana and Ivory Coast.

Protests against proposed immigration laws arose in cities across the United States during the spring of 2006. Many of the attendees were Latino, and waved flags. At first, flags of Mexico and other Latin American countries were displayed. Following negative reactions in the media, protest organizers asked rallygoers to fly the U.S. flag alongside or instead of the flags of Latin American countries. This article traces the history of flag-flying at these immigration protests, analyzes the motives of those displaying flags, and discusses the reaction to the display of Latin American flags. The disputed meanings imputed to the use of flags by the protesters and those who objected to the use of the flags is discussed in terms of symbolic conflict.

Short biographies of the article authors for Raven, volume 29.

This paper considers the impact of flag redesign efforts in Iraq following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003. During this period of political and social upheaval, occupying Western powers attempted many modifications to Iraqi governance under the aegis of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Primarily aimed at removing the vestiges of Saddam Hussein’s government, the project of de-Ba’thification attempted to change Iraq into a modern democracy replete with a national flag that symbolized this transformation. A forward-looking design created by the eminent architect Rifat Chadirji was soundly rejected, and Iraq instead approved a modest redesign of the Iraqi flag synonymous with Saddam Hussein and the Ba’th Party.

American Sāmoa, a territory of the United States, officially flies the Stars and Stripes of the U.S. as well as its own territorial flag, which features an American bald eagle along with some uniquely Sāmoan symbols and a red, white, and blue color scheme. More recently, an additional, unofficial flag has been flown in the Manu‘a archipelago—a district of American Sāmoa—that features a chicken, which has a deeply historical, regional, and symbolic significance, and that employs a red, green, and yellow color scheme reflective of other Manu‘a-specific material culture. This article charts the author’s experiences living and working in American Sāmoa and his efforts to understand the history and cultural significance of the territory’s many flags, as well as the ways in which these flags are interpreted and contested between and within islands and districts. Analysis of these flags is an opportunity for further discussions of colonialism and indigenous symbolism.

Flag-related scholarship takes place in many disciplines and is published in many places, beyond those sponsored by NAVA or other members of the International Federation of Vexillological Associations (FIAV). Periodically* Raven provides a bibliography of these works to call attention to the breadth and depth of vexillology (by this or any other name). Although numerous on-line collections have been consulted, this list is certainly not comprehensive. Nevertheless, hopefully it gives a sense of the many aspects of flags, their effects and uses, and how much more there is to be known.

In the early 20th century, the Society of the War of 1812 in Maryland gave to the state of Maryland a 13-star, 13-stripe national flag reputed to have been carried in 1781 at the Battle of Cowpens, in the American War for Independence. Other stories circulated about this same flag having later been carried in 1814 at the defense of Baltimore, Maryland, during the War of 1812. Both claims have been called into question by textile experts and historians, who dated the flag only to the mid-19th century. This article provides a meticulous study of previously unexplored documentary evidence, a close tracing of the flag’s provenance, and a reexamination of the flag’s materials and design, in order to reconsider previous conclusions about this “Cowpens Flag”. Presenting a methodological, historiographical, and material culture review of the artifact and of previous studies of the flag, it concludes that the flag in fact dates to the War of 1812. The stories of the flag being at the defense of Baltimore are true: specifically, Ensign Joshua Bachelor of the 27th Regiment of the Maryland Militia carried the flag at the Battle of North Point, Maryland. The “Cowpens Flag” misnomer should thus be replaced with “the Batchelor-North Point Flag”.