Albany Bicentennial Flag, 1686 - 1886.

This important single faced commemorative textile combines the flags of the national heritage of upstate New York. Clockwise they are Netherlands (1596 - 1630), Netherlands (1630 - 1664), Coat of Arms of Albany, Great Britain, The United states and New England. The Netherlands are represented by two flags: The Orange-White-Blue Princevlag, which was used in The Netherlands from 1572 until the 1630-60 periods; and the national flag of The Netherlands the Red-White-Blue that has been in use since the chance in the 17th century.

The top center device is the arms of the City of Albany which was founded as the settlement of Fort Orange, a name chosen to honor the House of Orange, the royal family of the Netherlands. Great Britain is represented by the Union Flag, 1006-1801; the United States is represented by a 38 star Canton which was official from 1877, when one star was added, representing Colorado, bringing the total number of stars to 38, until, 1890.

The bottom center device is interesting as it contains what was thought at the time to be the flag of New England, into which portions of New York were included in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. A European flag manufacturer mistaken interpreted the New England Pine Tree as a Globe and this was widely reproduced as the so-called flag of New England. This is interesting because it is a suppositions flag, which is an erroneous flag accepted as correct because of an error being repeated so often that it became accepted as fact.

ZFC Important Flag

New York Grouping