Betsy Ross Flag - The 'First Flag'

The 'First Flag'

The question "Who made the first American flag?" can only be given speculative answers. There are at least 17 flag makers and upholsterers who worked in Philadelphia during the time the flag was made. Margaret Manny is thought to have made the first Continental Colors (or Grand Union Flag), but there is no evidence to prove she also made the Stars and Stripes. Other flag makers of that period include Rebecca Young, Anne King, Cornelia Bridges, and flag painter William Barrett. Hugh Stewart sold a "flag of the United Colonies" to the Committee of Safety, and William Alliborne was one of the first to manufacture United States ensigns. Any flag maker in Philadelphia could have sewn the first American flag. According to Canby, there were other variations of the flag being made at the same time Ross was sewing the design that would carry her name. If true, there may not be one "first" flag, but many.

As late as 1779, the War Board of Continental Congress had still not settled on what the Standard of the United States should look like. The committee sent a letter to General Washington asking his opinion, and submitting a design that included the serpent, as well as a number corresponding to the state which flew the flag.

Francis Hopkinson is often given credit for the Betsy Ross design, as well as other 13-star arrangements. Hopkinson served on the Marine Committee, which passed the Flag Resolution on June 14, 1777, establishing the first congressional standard for official United States ensigns. The shape and arrangement of the stars is not mentioned— there were variations— but the legal description gives the Ross flag legitimacy.

Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.

In a 1780 letter to the Continental Board of Admiralty dealing with the Great Seal, Hopkinson mentioned patriotic designs he created in the past few years including "the Flag of the United States of America." He asked for compensation for his designs, but his claim was rejected on the basis that others also contributed to the design. Ross Biographer Marla Miller asserts that the question of Betsy Ross' involvement in the flag should not be one of design, but of production. Even so, history researchers must accept that the United States flag evolved, and did not have one designer. "The flag, like the Revolution it represents, was the work of many hands."