Philadelphia, birthplace of our Nation, including our first flag. We all know the story, right? Betsy Ross made the first flag with its 13 stars and its 13 stripes. I always imagined her creating the design from thin air, patriotically making the powerful symbol of our freedom. Turns out that may be revisionist history.
On a recent trip to the City of Brotherly love, I visited the house where Betsy Ross lived and worked as an upholsterer and seamstress. She did know George Washington and other leaders of the day, but there is no actual evidence, beyond family stories, that she was the first maker of the first flag.
At her homestead, the Betsy impersonator never broke character as she demonstrated the 5-point star she could cut from one piece of folded fabric. She explained that she liked the stars in a circle, the design we associate with her and think of as our first flag. But a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Francis Hopkinson, is recognized as the official designer of our flag, with his version that placed the white stars in rows on their blue background.
So while we may have to give up the romanticized notion of a regular seamstress rising to glory by creating our enduring symbol of independence, we can find solace in knowing that this smart, entrepreneurial, creative woman “… represents the many women who supported their families during the Revolution and the early Republic.”
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