Flag Day: When did the first U.S. flag become the Betsy Ross flag?
When did Betsy Ross become a household name?
Today, the thirteen-star flag approved by the Continental Congress in 1777 is often called the Betsy Ross flag. How and when did her name become linked to this flag? It’s easy to assume that her name was associated with flag from the start. However, Congress didn’t mention her name in their minutes when they adopted the first U.S. flag on June 14, 1777, which is now known as Flag Day.
The connection of Betsy Ross to America’s first flag was not known to the wider American public for nearly 100 years – until 1870, after her grandson William J. Canby reported to the Pennsylvania Historical Society:
“The first American flag, however, according to the design and approval of Congress, was made by Mrs. Elizabeth Ross. Three of her daughters still live in our vicinity to confirm this fact, founding their belief, not upon what they saw, for it was many years before they were born, but upon what their mother had often told them. A niece of this lady, Mrs. Margaret Boggs, aged ninety-five years, now lives in Germantown, and is conversant with the fact,” William J. Canby told the Pennsylvania Historical Society, as the New Hampshire Sentinel reported on June 16, 1870.
Canby was one of Ross’s grandsons from her third marriage to John Claypoole. She lost two husbands before having five children with Claypoole. Canby explained that Betsy Ross became involved in making the first flag through her deceased husband’s uncle, Colonel George Ross.
“It is related that when Congress had decided upon the design, Colonel George Ross and General Washington visited Mrs. Ross [the colonel’s widowed niece] and asked her to make it. She said, ‘I don’t know whether I can, but I’ll try,’ and directly suggested to the gentlemen that the design was wrong, in that the stars were six-cornered, and not five-cornered, as they should be.”
Ross was an upholsterer who knew the ins and outs of efficient cutting and sewing techniques for patterns such as stars. Having sewn flags for ships and recognizing that the flags would need to be uniform, she “straightened out” George Washington as her great-granddaughter Rachel Beuhler relayed in the 20th Century.
“Washington wanted a flag, and he had a six-point star in mind. But Betsy said a five-pointed star would be more symmetrical. She showed them how she could fold a piece of paper and with one snip of the scissors make a perfect five-pointed star.”
And with that, a new constellation was born, stitched in history by Betsy Ross according to family tradition. Her grandchildren were so confident in her role that they signed sworn affidavits testifying to her contribution.
Though Congress adopted the first official U.S. flag in 1777, Flag Day was not celebrated until June 14, 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson established the patriotic observance to build patriotism for America’s entry into World War I.
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