The flag of the District of Columbia is the official flag representing the district. Consists of three red stars above two red bars on a white background. It is an armorial banner based on the coat of arms of Lawrence Washington (George Washington's great-grandfather) of Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire, England, in 1592.
History
Washington family coat of arms
thumb|The coat of arms used by the Washington family
The Washington family traces its roots to England in the 13th century to Wessyngton, a small rural estate in the northeastern county of Durham where Sir William de Hertburn received a lordship. The original coat of arms evolved drastically over the next 150 years through alliances, land acquisitions and conflicts. In 1346, the first appearance of the family coat of arms as we would recognize it was recorded for Sir William de Wessyngton's great-grandson, but with argent (silver) horizontal bars and mullets on a gules (red) field. By the end of the 14th century, the current design was recorded for the family. After various events, the family was dispersed around England in Buckinghamshire, Kent, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. In 1592, Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms confirmed the coat of arms upon Lawrence Washington (1566/68-1616) of Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire during the reign of Elizabeth I.
Two grandsons of Lawrence Washington immigrated to English North America in the 1660s. One of them was John Washington, who immigrated to the colony of Virginia in 1656. His great-grandson was George Washington who would become the first president of the United States. George used the coat of arms extensively on his Mount Vernon plantation, including on personal objects and on the livery of his enslaved servants. This was a common practice among the American planter class. Mr. Heard confirmed the events that took place in England regarding his ancestors in a letter dated December 7, 1791. George Washington acknowledged that this was the same coat of arms used in the Colony prior to Independence.
After the seal of the district was adopted in 1871 and a flag soon followed. The flag had a blue field with the district's seal in the center. The seal on the flag was differed, it was missing the liberty cap and salute of Washington.
In the early 20th Century, the Thompsen-Bryan-Ellis Company was a firm of printers working on a flag book under the direction of Lieutenant Commander Byron McCandless who had a great interest in vexillology. The work was then taken over by the National Geographic. It became the now well known "Our Flag Number" (Volume XXXII - Number 4) which contained 1197 flags in full colors and an additional 300 in black and white. On page 335, the National Guard's flag is shown as the representation of the District of Columbia. It showed a blue flag with two banners on it: one above with the word "Headquarters" and one below with "District of Columbia Militia" written on it. In between was an axe. The flag was made by General Harris and later displayed over his headquarters in 1897.
Early designs
In 1902, Chairman Warner of Grand Army of the Republic wrote a letter to Commissioner Macfarland asking about a District flag. Macfarland wrote back a proposing a flag that was described as having stripes of red, white and blue, bearing the District's seal in the center with the motto: "Justitia Omnibus."
In 1921, Dunn had moved on to work for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. While working in the Mills Building, he drew a design for the flag in the office studio. He took the design directly from the coat of arms which belonged to the Washington family with no change to the design but did not release it at the time. On February 20, 1924, the Evening Star published a proposed design by John Mackaye Dunbar. It featured the shield portion of the coat-of-arms on a red field with a blue cross. While this design was not endorsed by the D.A.R., they appreciated its display of "simplicity" in their February 24 meeting. They confirmed that their research that the Militia flag with an ax had been used as a flag but was not an appropriate flag for the district. They further rejected the idea of having the seal of the District of Columbia be part of the design for a flag due to its complexity. Charles Moore, the chairman of the Fine Arts Commission who had been consulted on the drafting of the bill, also agreed that the design should be simple and should emphasize in some way that the district is the seat of the central government of all the states.
thumb|150px| Charles Dunn's 1924 proposed design for the district flag
In February of that year, Charles Dunn submitted a set of drawings in black and white and in color to the Evening Star which was published on March 16, 1924. While the charges remained the same (two bars and three mullets) the tinctures had changed from all gules (red) to cobalt blue for the stars and vermilion for the bars.
However, some opposition arose from the Southeast Citizens' Association. On March 26, 1924, they adopted a resolution opposing the adoption of a special flag for the District of Columbia. This resolution was apparently adopted after Capt. W.E. Luckett declared "that the only flag the District of Columbia should cherish as its own is the one flag for every American — the Stars and Stripes".
On May 12, 1924, at a gathering of the Federation of Citizen's Associations, an imitation meeting of the federation was staged for the purpose of entertaining the guests present at the event. Meetings were known for their fiery debates and the topic of choice in this piece was the adoption of a flag for the District of Columbia. The "special committee" was headed by Fred S. Walker and James W. Murphy who came forward with the emblem with Jesse C. Suter as a member:
The design which would become known as the Jest Flag and was made public again on June 14, 2019 as part of #DCFlagDay as part of a discussion on the history of the DC flag. It is currently in the holdings of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and was last displayed in 1960 according to Josh Gibson who found the flag.
thumb|150px| District flag design proposed by the Quartermaster General in May 1924
left|thumb|Photo of the Quartermaster General flag, 1925
On May 2, 1924, the Evening Star published a new designed proposed by the Army. It was designed by the Office of the Quartermaster General and was the joint work of Capt. J. Moultrie Ward, Q.M.C. and Flora F. Sherwood, the Quartermaster Corps civilian artist. While they used the arms of George Washington in part of the flag and its two colors, it was very different. The first third, next to the hoist, consisted of a broad red strip with three white five-pointed stars aligned vertically in its center. They represented the three cities originally in its boundaries: Washington City, Georgetown and Alexandria. The remainder of the flag was composed of four stripes aligned veritably and alternating white and red ending with red on its edge.
The Senate passed the bill on May 5, 1924, and it made its way to the House of Representatives. On May 7, 1924, the Native Washingtonians for a Banquet for the organizations fifth anniversary. During his presentation, the president of the society Jesse C. Suter showed the audience the version of the district flag that was presented a few weeks later and explained its meaning:
However, it seems the bill never made it through to become law. A decade later, the question reappeared. On September 16, 1934, Frederic Adrian Delano, chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission and the uncle of President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled his design for a district flag. His version was based on the American flag with the same 13 stripes. In place of the stars a map of Washington when the city
was first projected in 1792 was added and was surrounded by pictures of the Capitol, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Vernon, the Supreme Court Building, the Lee Mansion and the Amphitheater at Arlington, the Dumbarton House in Georgetown and the Masonic Memorial and Christ Church in Alexandria. In the four corners were four American eagles. The map design was originally drawn by Mildred G. Burrage at his suggestion and was known as the handkerchief map. The design was copyrighted by the American Civic Association of which Mr. Delano was president. Printed in six colors, the handkerchiefs were sold for $1 each and the proceeds were used for the George Washington Memorial Parkway fund.
thumb|William E. Russells flag, 1925
In 1925, The Merchants and Manufacturers Association of D.C. wanted to used a District flag, they inquired about its whereabouts. Finding that there was not an official flag a man named William E. Russells made his own. The flag had a blue border with a buff field in the center with a thin white line in between blue and buff. In the center of the field was the district's seal in blue. The flag was used by the association and later carried in a 4th of July and military parade. Another one was made for the George Washington University but differs in design. 2 other associations in the district used unofficial district flags, with one of them being described as bearing the head of George Washington.]]
On June 16, 1938, Congress requested by an act that the secretary of war, the secretary of the Navy and the president of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia create "a commission to procure a design for a distinctive flag for the District of Columbia, the Seat of the Capital of the Nation". The selection of the design shall have the advice of the Commission of Fine Arts. The bill was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the same day.
The commission included the president of the Board of Commissioners Melvin C. Hazen, the secretary of war Harry H. Woodring and the secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson. They held a meeting on July 9, 1938 to discuss the plans of choosing a design. The Evening Star stated at the time that this was a first step for the people of Washington toward the district's sovereignty which would include the right to vote. It was hoped that this was a sign of concession to come on the matter. At the time, the district commissioner was appointed by the president of the United States as were the two secretaries as part of the Cabinet. It was not until 1975 that DC residents voted for their mayor.
An announcement was made in the newspapers of a contest open to the public to submit design and ideas for the flag. The Heraldic Division of the War Department laid some heraldry and visibility rules.
Design submissions and selection
Charles Dunn submitted his 1921 design with the Washington coat of arms with all the charges in their original tincture of gules (red) in June 1938. In addition to the flag itself, he proposed the use of a Washington coat of arms in the canton (which he erroneously called a jack) for local organizations such as the American Legion. The organization would then use the rest of the space (the field) on the flag for their own emblem.]]
On August 24, 1938, the Evening Star announced that the commission had met to review the designs. They were down to two submissions mentioned by name. The first one was Charles Dunn's design using Washington's coat of arms. The second was a submission by the American Liberty Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and designed by one of its members, Mrs. George T. Hawkins. On a blue background, a big gold star made up of 13 concentric lines representing the original Thirteen Colonies with the Capitol Building in the center. The star is encircled by 48 small gold stars representing the states in the Union. The words "DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA" written in gold could be added or removed from the bottom. A flag of Dunn's design was made and a display board of Hawkins design were shown to the reporters present at the announcement. Both designs were submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts for final review as the commission "admitted a deadlock".
Formal requests for local selection involvement
However, the Commission of Fine Arts had to delay the review as it wanted to study all of the 50-odd designs and some had not yet arrived as of September 3 when the meeting took place. The review was pushed by two weeks to the next meeting. In addition, the Evening Star reported that the process of selecting the design was being questioned among those active in civic affairs. It was suggested that the Commission of Fine Arts use a more democratic process. This selection was "seen as a real opportunity to arouse interest and civic spirit through giving this voteless and unrepresented community an opportunity to have a part in the selection of the community colors under which it will in the future march with pride and devotion".
The question of what the flag should represent was also discussed. The Evening Star asked the question in these terms: "what do any of the designs under consideration symbolize?" On a letter to the commissioner they stated their concerns:
The Federation of Citizens' Association joined in this movement in early October. They requested that the Commission of Fine Arts give them the privilege to co-operate with them to the selection of the design. A special committee was to be appointed to seek this. A letter from the Association of Oldest Inhabitants to the Federation of Citizens' Association was sent on October 5, 1938 requesting that both groups collaborate on the selection of the design. The Kalorama Association sided with the other two associations on October 11 as they sent a letter to the commission recommending that the choice of the design be left to the residents of the district.
Selection of the final design
thumb|150px|Commissioner Melvin C. Hazen holding the district flag selected by his commission in October 1938
On October 15, 1938, the Evening Star announced that a new flag has been adopted by the District Flag Commission and the Fine Arts Commission. After reviewing 50 designs, Washington's coat of arms was selected. The design was described as "paying honors to George Washington using the major elements of the emblem features of the family shield of the first President".
One resident had similar views, describing his vision of the flag which he considers "a misfit for a flag to represent the seat of government of the greatest free country of the earth".
Over time, attitudes toward the design changed, being embraced by many, including the statehood movement.
The flag of Washington D.C. placed eighth out of 72 entries in a 2001 survey of U.S. and Canadian subdivisional flags by the North American Vexillological Association.
History of Washington family arms
The coat of arms in question is blazoned as:
According to records available, this coat of arms was granted to Lawrence Washington of Sulgrave Manor in 1592 by Robert Cook, Clarenceux King of Arms. He was the last known recorded grantee of that specific design by the College of Arms.
Lawrence would have passed it down to his descendants upon his death as it was the tradition. Lawrence Washington had two sons: John (1589–1688) and Lawrence (1602–1652). Lawrence Washington was the youngest. As was often the case of younger children, he entered the clergy as he seems to not have had received the estate and became a rector.
Lawrence's oldest son, John Washington (1631-1677) was the earliest ancestor to arrive in America with his youngest brother. He settled in the Colony of Virginia in 1656. It is mentioned in Crozier's General Armory that John was using the coat of arms in Virginia in 1657. However this armorial was published 250 years later in 1904 and the author does not cite any sources for the coat of arms. It could well be that William Armstrong Crozier was deducting the fact that John had it because George Washington was using them a century and a half later.
There seems to have been no official recordings of this coat of arms in the colonies so it remains unclear who used the coat of arms between John Washington who settled in 1656 and the Revolutionary war. It is said that it was engraved on Elizabeth Washington (1717–1734/35), George Washington's cousin. It appears that the coat of arms had been used by the family in the Colony for some time as George Washington reported in his letter to Sir Isaac Heard on May 2, 1792. George himself had started using it as early as 1755, when he purchased goods with the coat of arms.
The earliest communication we have from his regarding this happens in 1788 with William Barton. The question was raised with regards to the design of the Great Seal of the United States and the possible need for regulations which George Washington was reluctant to the idea because of the fragility of the Union. At the time, he described himself as "imperfectly acquainted with the subject of heraldry. In his view "it might not [...] be advisable to stir any question, that would tend to reanimate the dying embers of faction, or blow the dormant spark of jealousy into an inextinguishable flame."
thumb|150px|The [[Lansdowne portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1802, features an ink well with the coat of arms engraved on it.]]
A couple years later, the same President was in communication with Isaac Heard, who was the Garter Principal King of Arms to inquire about his family's coat of arms. The communication seems to be centered around the genealogical question. In the December 7, 1791 letter, Mr. Heard is requesting additional information regarding George Washington's ancestry as he seem to not have that information available. Mr. Washington responds on May 2, 1792 that he will probably not be able to provide this pedigree due to the lack of centralized records. He has been researching the historical family link to England and acknowledges that he is unsure about the exact location in England. It is in this letter that he mentions the resemblance of the arms: