13 Star U.S. "Betsy Ross" Flag made by Sarah M. Wilson.
This diminutive silk flag (circa 1890s) with 13 five-pointed stars arranged in a single ring is popularly known as a Betsy Ross flag or pattern. It was hand sewn by Sarah Wilson who was the great granddaughter of Elisabeth Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole, better known to Americans as Betsy Ross. Ross was a woman with one of the most recognized names in U.S. history who has been honored in various ways including by a Philadelphia landmark, a famous bridge linking PA and NJ and a U.S. postage stamp.
The story of Betsy Ross sewing the first United States flag is well known and is often repeated, despite the fact that no evidence or documents have surfaced to substantiate the account. Nevertheless, the story of the widowed Philadelphia seamstress making the first flag for General George Washington had become a part of the popular American consciousness when the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 was held in Philadelphia, PA to mark the nation's first 100 years.
Betsy Ross continued in the flag business until the 1830s when blindness forced her retirement. Her daughters and their daughters continued the family business and supplied contract flags to the U.S. Arsenal on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The Ross descendants were known locally but not nationally until 1870 when her grandson William J. Canby delivered a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania entitled: "The History of the Flag of the United States" in which he made an appeal "to prove or disprove" his family's links with the creation of the first flag.
The timing of this event helped propel this story into the popular imagination and where fact left off speculation abounded. In the era of the 1876 centennial, Betsy Ross provided a perfect counter point to martial hero General Washington. She was a domestic heroine; a Quaker, dutifully tending hearth and home, her legendary skill with the needle made fall to her the task of sewing the first 13-star flag. As the story spread it became widely accepted. As it was accepted there grew a gradual clamor for more details and information about the Philadelphia upholsterer, including the location of her now famous upholstery shop.
By the late 1870s, the building recognized by Ross descendants had been acquired by an immigrant family and was used as a tailor's shop, a cigar store and finally as a tavern. In the 1880s, the area around the old Claypoole (nee Ross) house and shop became an industrial area and the 18th century buildings were replaced with commercial properties. In an effort to save what had been identified as the Betsy Ross House, the American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial Association was formed and membership subscriptions were sold to acquire the house as a memorial.
Betsy Ross' great granddaughter, Sarah M. Wilson, helped support these efforts by sewing small flags like this example. Often called "ribbon flags", the stripes are meticulously hand sewn with alternating red and white silk ribbons. Into this field is set a blue silk canton onto which a ring of 13, small white five-pointed stars have been embroidered; each point to a delicately embroidered single strand of silk yarn radiating out from a common center.
Sarah Wilson's aunt and Betsy's granddaughter Rachael Albright had started sewing these flags in the 1890s and together they would sit in the East Wing of Independence Hall in Philadelphia and sew. The flags were offered to benefactors of the Memorial Association. They continued in this endeavor until about 1914, often, as in this example, autographing the flags along the small cotton sleeve on the hoist.
Rachael and Sarah both proclaimed that the design they made was in fact how the original appeared, despite the fact that there were no surviving period flags with this pattern. However, their handiwork did a great deal to cement the single ring of 13 stars into the American imagination as the "Betsy Ross Flag".
It should be noted in the Zaricor Flag Collection that there is a single ring of 12 stars with a larger single star in the middle of the circle of 12 stars (see ZFC0715). This flag is documented as an original period 13-star flag, circa 1783 that is believed to be the nearest flag in design and pattern to the so-called Betsy Ross flag. It is believed that this flag was made at a time when there were more than half a dozen designs of 13-star flags during and after the Revolution.
Also, it is believed this flag is sometimes called the 12/1 design and is also occasionally referred to as the real "Betsy Ross flag", due to its striking similarity to the flag design the Betsy Ross family claimed was the flag Betsy Ross first designed without a star inside the circle of stars. The only flags that have ever been found that are like the one the family says Betsy Ross designed and made at the time of the Revolution, have been flags made around the Centennial period (1876) and later such as this flag.
There is a painting that was produced 60 years after the Revolution and it is considered to be a fanciful interpretation of an event that took place during the Revolution. It's possible that over time, the family mistakenly recalled the family story and maybe the 12/1 design with a star in the center of the circle such as ZFC0715 could be one type among others she made in Philadelphia as well as those that were made by other flag makers in other states at that time. Flag historians are adamant Betsy Ross never claimed she made the first American flag and that her family likely recalled the history incorrectly.
There is no doubt she was a significant flag maker during her time but she was not the person who made the first stars and stripe flag; the maker of which historians believe may never be determined.
Exhibition History:
Museum of Art & History
Santa Cruz, CA
Santa Cruz Collects
11 August - 25 November 2102
Provenance: Acquired in 2012 at auction from Heritage Auctions, Inc., Dallas, Texas.
ZFC Important Flag
Item is Framed
Sources:
Canby, William J., "The History of the Flag of the United States", Betsy Ross Homepage Resources, ushistory.org, 11 July 2012, from: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/more/canby.htm
Miller, Marla R., Betsy Ross and the Making of America, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2010.
Betsy Ross, Wikipedia, 11 July 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross
Betsy Ross House,, Wikipedia, 11 July 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross_House
History of the Betsy Ross House, Historic Philadelphia, 11 July 2012, from: http://historicphiladelphia.org/betsy-ross-house/house/
Betsy Ross, 11 July 2012, from: http://www.usflag.org/about.betsy.ross.html
Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, Wikipedia, 11 July 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross_House
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
Heritage Auctions, Inc.
