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The US Flag: The Old Glory ( )

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Names: the Stars and Stripes, the Starry Banner Stars: heavens and the divine goal to which man aspires Stripes: a ray of the Sun

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The name Old Glory was first applied to the flag by a young sea captain William Driver, who lived in Salem, Massachusetts. On his 21 st birthday he was presented it by his mother and some ladies from his native town. It was a large flag, measuring 10 feet by 17 feet, heavily constructed and designed to be flown from a ship's mast. It originally had 24 stars and, symbolic of its nautical purpose, included a small anchor sewn in the corner of its blue canton. He was delighted with a gift and named it Old Glory. Then the flag accompanied him on his voyages.

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Captain Driver quit the sea in 1837. Since then the flag was proudly shown above his house, hidden from the Union soldiers, sawed in a comforter, and raised at the capitol building in 1862.

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Before his death conveyed the flag to his daughter to love and cherish it as he did. The flag remained in the Driver family until 1922. Then it was sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, where it is preserved under glass today.

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Other versions of the flag: Continental Colors (Grand Union Flag, the Congress flag, the First Navy Ensign, the Cambridge Flag), 1776 unofficial version. It was used by the American Continental forces as a naval ensign and garrison flag in 1776 and early 1777. The Betsy Ross flag is an early design of the flag of the United States popularly attributed to Betsy Ross using the common motives of alternating red-and-white striped field with white stars in a blue canton. The flag was designed during the American Revolution and features 13 stars to represent the original 13 colonies. The distinctive feature of the Ross flag is the arrangement of the five-pointed stars in a circle. (1774)