Origins of the United States Flag

While the name Betsy Ross is synonymous with the US flag, Margaret Manny’s role in our flag’s history is arguably more important. Margaret Manny was a Philadelphia hat maker who, during the American Revolution, transitioned to making flags for the rebellion.

Manney’s Grand Union flag is a hybrid of the familiar thirteen red and white stripes, representing the union of the thirteen colonies, but with the left upper field occupied by the United Kingdom’s Union Jack instead of stars.

Manney’s Grand Union flag was flown by John Paul Jones aboard the Alfred on December 3, 1775, becoming the first national flag of the United States of America. Manney’s Grand Union flag also hung during the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In The Hesperus Prophecy, Manney’s original copy hangs in the Room of the Honored.

The Grand Union flag design was deemed too similar to the English flag, so in June 1777, the new nation formally passed a law that “the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

As for Betsy Ross, her contributions weren’t documented until 1870, when her grandson wrote about George Washington visiting her sewing shop and requesting her to make a flag with stars. He also credited her with changing the original design from six to five-pointed stars. As Declan correctly points out, Betsy Ross doesn’t have a stronger claim on being the US flag’s first seamstress, she simply had a better publicist.

Margaret Manny’s Grand Union Flag