June 14th is Flag Day in the United States, commemorating the adoption of the Flag by the Second Continental Congress in 1777. The banners depicted in today's photo are derived from what is commonly called the "Betsy Ross Flag," with thirteen horizontal stripes alternating red and white, and a circle of thirteen starts set in a field of blue. Legend has it that General George Washington, Robert Morris, and John Ross gave Philadelphia seamstress a rough design for the banner and commissioned her to sew a flag for the fledgeling nation. As the legend goes, Betsy showed them how she could produce a five-point star with one snip of the scissors, and she then produced the flag we commonly associate with the American Revolution. This legend, however, started in 1870, almost 100 years after the Revolution. It stems from a speech made by William Canby, the grandson of Betsy Ross, and delivered to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The story was picked up by Harper's Weekly in 1873, and the story has now become entrenched in the American mythos. There's likely very little truth to it, however. Washington, a Mason, only used six-pointed stars (including on his personal banner) and would not have consented to a flag consisting of solid pentagrams. The concept of him visiting Betsy Ross in the mid-1770s is also a bit farfetched. He was in the field with the Continental Army throughout that period and was more concerned with holding his ragtag army together than he was in visiting a seamstress in Philly. That the story did not surface for 100 years and that there is no documentation to support the story further discredits the legend. It's a nice story and fits in nicely with other tales of the Revolution, but it simply does not pass historical muster. So what was the "first flag" that we celebrate on June 14? That, unfortunately, appears to be lost to history. There are several that contend for the title, but they, too, are more the substance of legend than they are of fact.
Post processing started with a detail light filter in Topaz Adjust. In PSE I did a slight levels adjustment and then added a blue photo filter.
