The flag of the state of Wisconsin is a blue flag charged with the state coat of arms. Originally designed in 1863 when regiments from Wisconsin wanted a flag for battlefield use, it wasn't until 1913 that state statutes specified the design of the state flag.
In order to distinguish it from the many other blue U.S. state flags, Wisconsin's flag was modified in 1979 to add "Wisconsin" and "1848", the year Wisconsin was admitted to the Union.
In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) ranked Wisconsin's flag among the bottom ten flags in design quality out of the 72 Canadian provincial, U.S. state and U.S. territory flags, placing it 65th out of the 72. The NAVA stated that about half of U.S. states used blue fields making them difficult to distinguish and the survey ranked flags with words and complex seals the lowest. The NAVA survey "favored strong, simple, distinctive flags" and ranked "seal-on-a-bedsheet" type flags the lowest.
Famous quotes containing the words flag of and/or flag:
“Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.”
—Stephen Crane (1871–1900)
““Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
The End”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)