Betsy Ross Flag

The Betsy Ross Flag is an early design of the American flag popularly attributed to Betsy Ross using the common motifs of alternating red-and-white striped field with white stars in a blue canton. The flag was designed during the American Revolution and features 13 stars to represent the original 13 colonies. The distinctive feature of the Ross flag is the arrangement of the five-pointed stars in a circle. According to legend, the original Betsy Ross flag was made in 1776, when a small committee, including George Washington and George Ross, a relative of hers, visited Betsy and discussed the need for a new American flag. Betsy’s contribution to the design was a five-pointed star and she accepted the job to sew the first.

The flag was in use by 1777. Alfred B. Street described it at the surrender of General Burgoyne and understood the circle of stars to represent equality among the American states. It is one of the oldest versions of any U.S. flag known to exist; while it is not the Original American Flag artifact in cloth form, its likeness appears on older physical relics, namely, the contemporary battlefield paintings by John Trumbull and Charles Willson Peale. They depict the circular star arrangement being flown from ship masts and many other places, and thus provide the first known historical documentation on the flag’s appearance.