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Monday, February 10, 2014

The Unofficial 16-Star US Flag 1796


The Unofficial 16-Star US Flag 1796

Although the star pattern used in the canton of this Stars and Striped flag has been arranged in normal horizontal lines, it was one made because this is an example of an unofficial variant of a flag that never existed! In 1795, the United States flag law had changed to have the flag go from 13 stars and stripes to 15 stars and stripes, however, no provision was made for recognizing the entry of new States into the union, or a standard process of how to change the flag design when this happened. Therefore, in 1796, when Tennessee entered as the 16th State, the flag wasn't changed as Congress discussed the problem.

Many times flag makers simply ignored the fact that a stars and stripped flag using a certain number of stars must be made official by the Congress of the United States by resolution, and simply made new flags before the fact. After the 15 stars resolution, there was no "approved" change in the flag until 20 states were made in 1818. Hence, "officially" this flag didn't exist.

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