The History of Flag Day: From the Continental Congress to Old Glory

The most enduring legend of the first American flag involves Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross. According to the story passed down through her family, in June 1776, a secret committee including George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross (Betsy's uncle by marriage) visited her upholstery shop at 239 Arch Street. They asked her to sew a flag based on a design they brought.

Betsy supposedly made three key contributions: she suggested changing the six-pointed stars to five-pointed stars (demonstrating that she could cut a perfect five-pointed star with a single snip of her scissors), she rearranged the stars into a circle, and she adjusted the proportions of the flag. While historians have found no contemporary documentation to support this story (it first appeared when her grandson told it to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1870, 34 years after her death), Betsy Ross remains an beloved figure in American folklore. Most historians credit Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as the actual designer of the flag.

Francis Scott Key and the Flag That Inspired a Nation

During the War of 1812, on the night of September 13-14, 1814, American lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key watched from a British warship as the Royal Navy bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor. Key was aboard the ship negotiating the release of an American prisoner. Through the "rockets' red glare" and "bombs bursting in air," he strained to see whether the American flag — a massive 30-by-42-foot garrison flag sewn by Mary Pickersgill — still flew over the fort.

At dawn, Key saw the flag still waving. He was so moved that he began writing a poem on the back of a letter he had in his pocket. The poem, originally titled "Defence of Fort McHenry," was later set to the tune of a popular British drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." It was renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and adopted as the national anthem by Congress in 1931.

Bernard J. Cigrand (1866—1932) is known as the "Father of Flag Day." On June 14, 1885, a 19-year-old schoolteacher at the Stony Hill School in Waubeka, Wisconsin, placed a small 38-star flag (the version at that time) in a bottle on his desk and asked his students to write an essay about what the flag meant to them. This humble classroom exercise sparked a lifelong crusade.

Cigrand spent the next 47 years traveling across the country, giving speeches, writing articles, and lobbying for a national day to honor the flag. He served as president of the American Flag Day Association and edited "American Flag" magazine. On May 7, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for a nationwide observance of Flag Day. But Cigrand wanted more — he wanted Congress to make it official. He died on May 16, 1932, never knowing that 17 years later, on August 3, 1949, President Harry Truman would sign an Act of Congress officially designating June 14 as National Flag Day.