Today, June 14, is Flag Day and here at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum we are home to a very special flag, donated to us by Congressman Richard H. Baker on April 22, 2002, to memorialize the events surrounding the September 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Center.
This 56″ x 96″ United States flag was originally displayed for thirty days outside the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, office to Congressman Baker.
It is now prominently displayed in the Louisiana Art & Science Museum’s Ivan Mestrovic Gallery, locate just beyond the visitor service desk.
What’s the story behind Flag Day?
The Fourth of July was traditionally celebrated as America’s birthday, but the concept of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885 as “Flag Birthday.” BJ Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the students in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as “Flag Birthday”. Over the years, Cigrand continued to enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as Flag Birthday or Flag Day through numerous magazines, newspaper articles and public addresses.
On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City, planned ceremonies for the children of his school, and his idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the State Board of Education of New York. On June 14, 1891, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration, and on June 14 of the following year, the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution celebrated Flag Day.
Following the suggestion of Colonel J Granville Leach (at the time historian of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution), the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America on April 25, 1893, adopted a resolution requesting the mayor of Philadelphia and all others in authority and all private citizens to display the flag on June 14. Leach went on to recommend that thereafter the day be known as Flag Day, and on that day school children be assembled for appropriate exercises, with each child being given a small flag.
Two weeks later on May 8, the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution unanimously endorsed the action of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames. As a result of the resolution, Dr. Edward Brooks, then Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia, directed that Flag Day exercises be held on June 14, 1893, in Independence Square. School children were assembled, each carrying a small flag, and patriotic songs were sung and addresses delivered.
In 1894, the governor of New York directed that on June 14 the flag be displayed on all public buildings. With BJ Cigrand and Leroy Van Horn as the moving spirits, the Illinois organization, known as the American Flag Day Association, was organized for the purpose of promoting the holding of Flag Day exercises. On June 14, 1894, under the auspices of this association, the first general public school children’s celebration of Flag Day in Chicago was held in Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks, with more than 300,000 children participating.
Adults, too, participated in patriotic programs. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, delivered a 1914 Flag Day address in which he repeated words he said the flag had spoken to him that morning: “I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself.”
Inspired by these three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day – the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 – was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson’s proclamation, it was not until August 3, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14 of each year as National Flag Day.
information courtesy of usflag.org