Forty-Five Star American Flag.

$2,800.00

Item Number: 133095

Rare forty-five star American Flag. The forty-five star American Flag was in use between July 4, 1896 when the state of Utah was admitted into the Union and July 3, 1908 when Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th state. In near fine condition. The flag measures 58 inches by 114 inches.

One of the nation’s most widely recognized symbols, the flag of the United States of America has been officially modified a total of 26 times since its first appearance in 1777. The flag’s initial design, bearing thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, has been credited to several historic figures including naval flag designer Francis Hopkinson, Elizabeth “Betsy” Ross, and flagmaker Rebecca Young. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution which stated: “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.” “The preference of Civil War flagmakers was clearly for horizontal and vertical alignment of stars: that is, complete parallelism of rows... The collective visual effect of Civil War flags is, therefore, one of hypnotic rhythm - the embattled stars, drawn up in military order in defense of the threatened Union, stride on relentlessly. Star patterns of this sort, denser now and necessarily smaller, may be described as ‘phalanx’ or ‘battalion’ arrangements. While Civil War flags escaped much of the mortal rigidity of mechanical mass production, their artistic merit was more particularly due to the delicate design relationship of the elements and to numerous subtle details - such as the directions of the arms of the stars, which we never entirely regimented, as they are on modern flags. And truly no modern replica can either do justice to the artistic character, or render the ‘patina’ of one of these antique flags” (Mastai & Mastai, 124).