Description
Rare 48 Star Whipple Flag Framed / SOLD
Flag Size:14 x 21
In 1907 the Country had 46 States. By 1912 Congress was getting around to adding the 47th& 48thStates so we would be needing a new flag with 48 Stars.
The expectation of a new flag drew considerable public interest & many groups held national design contests for the upcoming 48 star flag. A notable design was from Wayne Whipple of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Whipple’s design, which he called the Peace Flag, featured a symbolic arrangement of the canton’s stars. 13, for the 1st 13 states, were arranged in the middle of the canton in the shape of a six-sided star; 25 stars, representing the states that entered the union during the nation’s first century, circled that star; and ten stars, for the states that were admitted after 1876, were arranged in an outer circle. Whipple wanted his flag to be accepted as the official 48 star flag and the design attracted significant attention. President Taft even recommended Whipple’s design to the War and Navy Departments. However, a War Department panel decided on a more conventional design with the stars arranged in six horizontal rows of eight stars with one point of each star facing upward. President Taft followed the panel’s recommendation &, through two executive orders, standardized the configuration and proportions of the American flag.
Whipple, clearly a zealous vexillographer, also offered his Peace Flag to Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912 presidential campaign. In a letter to Senator Joseph M. Dixon, who was serving as Roosevelt’s campaign manager, Whipple dedicated his flag “to Roosevelt without reserve on behalf of the patriotic people of my country.” He describes the flag as “full of history and authority” and hoped that after Roosevelt’s election the country would officially adopt the flag. We have not located any evidence that the Roosevelt campaign took advantage of Whipple’s offer.
It is my belief that after 20 years of dealing in antique flags Mr. Whipple had the nations flag manufactures against him and against his design as it was too complicated and what would you do when we added more states? And since the government was the biggest buyer of flags their opinion was huge when they went against Mr. Whipple.
Since the Whipple Flag design was never adopted as the Nations design it fell into obscurity. There are so few in existence that it’s a sure bet Mr. Whipple was the only one making the Whipple Flag. Presented here is a very rare Whipple Peace Flag of which only a few are known to exist.
