The 18th Star

About a year ago a flag rolled onto a large diameter tube came to my studio, brought by the Preventive Conservator, Tara Kennedy from the archival collection at the Divinity Library at Yale University. They had recently learned of a large, wool bunting, 18-star, thirteen stripe National flag in their collection. This was part of an investigative project for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) by Library Alliance intern Taylor Williams, who is a forensic science undergraduate from Southern University of New Orleans. The flag arrived at Yale in 2017 as part of a transfer of several hundred boxes of archival materials from Andover Newton Theological School, formerly located in Newton, Massachusetts. Every eighteen-star flag is very unusual and rare. What was the date of the flag? Could it be a real 18-star flag from 1812? These and other questions could only begin to be answered with a fuller understanding of the flag. This began with a full analysis and description of the flag. 

Overall of the 18-Star flag.

Schematic of the flag illustrating the locations of seams and selvages.

What is a flag analysis? This is a technical study that includes every aspect of the flag’s construction, including measurements and type of materials used. The study documents gross overall construction and progresses down to the spin and thread count of each fabric present (see the table below). The physical examination is done under both simple, 8x magnification and microscopy at 100x and 250x magnification. The known physical properties are compared to other known flag examples of similar type and ages. Some technical studies include analysis of the dyes as well, which was not performed in this case. 

Magnification of the three wool fabrics. The salvage edge is located on the left side of both the blue and red fabrics. Each are a plain-weave structure with threads spun in the Z-direction.

The Canton

The first indication of the unusual nature of this flag was in the construction of the canton. It was made with three horizontal seams, evenly spaced about 8” apart. Found at each seam were selvage edges, meaning that each strip of fabric was a full width, not pieced with fragments. This narrow-woven bunting is called “quarter cloth.” Its presence in this flag was unusual. 

Uniqueness of an 18-star flag The second official national flag was in 1795 with 15-stars to include the states of Vermont and Kentucky. The third official flag was in 1818 with 20-stars (Mastai and Mastai 1973; Madaus and Smith 2006). The third Flag Act stated that the number of stripes would remain at 13. Many flags used during the War of 1812 featured fifteen stripes as well as stars. The eighteenth star of the US national flag represents Louisiana, which achieved statehood on April 30th 1812, following Ohio (1803) and before Indiana (1816). There was no official 18-star flag. This is why so many 15-star flags, such as the Star Spangled Banner and the Fort Niagara flag, were used long after they no longer correctly represented the number of states in the Union. Grace Cooper in her book Thirteen-Star Flags: Keys to Identification notes, ‘It is doubtful that there were any eighteen-star or nineteen-star flags. . . With the War of 1812 raging, one would not expect the national flag to be changed while it was under fire” (Cooper 1973). However, in So Proudly We Hail, (Furlong and McCandless 1981) a silk, eighteen-star and eighteen stripe flag is shown. This is called the Baton Rouge Flag and is in an unknown collection (see below). It clearly does not fully follow the Flag Act specifications about the number of stars and stripes. The stars in this this Baton Rouge Flag are in a 5-4-5-4 pattern. Its existence indicates that the Yale's 18-Star flag is possibly historically real.

The silk Baton Rouge Flag with 18-stars and 18 stripes.

Are there other 18-star flags? In 1860 when southern states were beginning to secede, areas of the north were beginning to make flags with stars representing those states who were known to remain in the Union. Such flags have been called Exclusionary Flags. A surviving example is the 18-Star flag from Isaac Hayes Arctic Expedition of 1860 that left from Boston (Zaricor; ZFC0630; Mastai and Mastai 1973). This cotton flag was professionally made, with two-concentric rings around a center star. In contrast are Louisiana Secession flags. A surviving flag has eighteen stars, being the eighteen state, however with fewer stripes (Bridgeman). Both of these surviving flags are made of cotton.

Summary of Findings 

The fabric analysis of the 18-star flag bunting used fits within the range of threads per inch of the early nineteenth century. According to Cooper, use of single Z-spun threads persisted into the Civil War. The flag is made of high-quality wool, hand-woven fabric and is skillfully constructed with an unusual star count. All of the findings indicate that the flag is genuine to the time period of when Louisiana became a state in 1812.