U.S. 26 Star Flag - Michigan as the 26th state of the Union.
This hand sewn 26 star United States flag was made to indicate the admission of Michigan as the 26th state on January 26, 1837; and would remain accurate until the admission of Florida on March 3, 1845, a period of 8 years, 1 month, 5 days.

This flag is an outstanding example of a mid-19th century wool flag. The stripes and canton are made from hand-loomed homespun, indicative of very 19th century manufacture. The heading has three hand sewn whip-stitched eyelets, a common finishing detail in the first half of the 19th century. The star field is unusual in that the two stars on the fly end of the canton, which may have been added later. This flag gives all the appearances of originally being a 24 star flag, which became official in 1822. Therefore, this flag is believed to be a conversion of a 24 star flag to which two stars have been added; one in 1836 for Arkansas, and one in 1837 for Michigan. If so, the extra space on the fly end of the canton of this flag seems to indicate pre-planning by the maker in order to facilitate conversion by leaving extra space in the fly of the canton for additional stars.

It is worth remembering that in the 19th century the United states was a dynamic country with territories vying for statehood, and the star count on the US flag changing approximately 20 times in 78 years. This presented flag makers with a problem; namely, how to create star fields which could be easily changed or converted when the star count changed ion the next 4th of July after admission of a new state.

ZFC Significant Flag

Provenance:
• Acquired by Tillen's Treasures, Hesrperia, CA, until 2008.
• Purchase on Internet Auction bu Louise Veninga Zaricor for Zaricor Flag Collection, 2008.


Sources:


Cooper, Grace Rogers, Thirteen-Star Flags: Keys to Identification, Smithsonian Institution Press, City of Washington, 1973.
Madaus, Howard M.- Whitney Smith, The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict, VZ Publications, Santa Cruz, 2006.

Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The Stars and The Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the republic to the Present, Knopf, New York, 1973.

Collins, Herbert Ridgeway, Threads of History, Americana Recorded on Cloth 1775 to the Present, City of Washington, Smithsonian Press, 1979.
26 Star Flag - (1837-1845) (U.S.), Flags of the World, 1 November 2011, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-1837.html

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection