48-STAR AMERICAN PARADE FLAG COMMEMORATING NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA STATEHOOD

(AMERICANA) (NEW MEXICO) (ARIZONA) Forty-eight star U.S. flag. No place: circa 1955. Muslin flag measuring 33-1/2 by 55 inches; with five-point stars arrayed in an eight-star, six-row, straight-row pattern; printed blue canton extends to the seventh stripe and rests on the eighth [white] stripe; housed in a triangular oak display box. $875.

48-star American flag commemorating New Mexico and Arizona statehood.

New Mexico and Arizona were added to the Union in 1912, and the 48-star flag commemorating their statehood remained the official flag of the United States until the admission of Alaska in 1959. Presidents serving under this flag were William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower; it was the official flag during both World Wars and the Korean War. The arrangement of the stars in straight rows, as with this flag, became popular during the Civil War: "the collective visual effect… is, therefore, one of hypnotic rhythm" (Mastai & Mastai, 123), but "until 1912, no regulation governed the arrangement or uniformity of the stars" (Pierce Collection, 9). "On June 24, 1912, the laissez-faire tradition of American flag design came to an end when President William Howard Taft issued an executive order establishing the proportions of the national flag's field and canton, and the arrangement and orientation of the stars. This order applied to the 48-star flag… [which] remained the single official configuration for the American national flag for 47 years" (Druckman & Kohn, 79). The blue canton on this flag is printed, whereas the stripes are machine-sewn; there are two steel grommets on the hoist. See Keim & Keim, 168.

Small tear to the first star and tear to bottom white stripe with cellophane tape repair to reverse of flag. Light toning to white stripes, indicating that this flag was flown outdoors.