The Chinese post office used flags to mark its facilities—buildings and vehicles—during an era when it served as one of the only unifying institutions in an otherwise fractured nation ruled by factions, warlords, and quasi-states. From the “Flying Goose” to the “automatic canceller mark”, its flag designs invoked speed, loyalty, and reliability.

When the Argentine flag flew briefly over the California port town of Monterey in 1818, it represented not conquest but rather a call to join the Americas-wide revolt against Spanish rule. This article explains the full and complex story behind Captain Hippolyte de Bouchard’s actions.

The Association’s 2006 publication of its flag-design manual Good Flag, Bad Flag inspired a lengthy analysis and critique of its meaning, importance, and limitations, arguing for a more expansive view of flag design. This paper received the Driver Award in 2007.

In this paper the leading proponent of observing the flag as the centerpiece of the country’s civil religion explores how Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice-presidential candidate, embodied the archetypes of the female essence of America—Good Mother, the Woman Warrior, and the Sex Goddess—all juxtaposed with the American flag. The paper is extensively illustrated.

In the Soviet Union (1922-1991) small flags designed for and used by children were more than just toys. Deep scholarship and extensive illustrations of flags from the author’s collection show how such flags played a significant role in the socialization of Soviet children.

During the Revolutinalry War, ten states created their own navies, separate and distinct from the Continental Navy organized by Congress, to fight the British. Categorized into “blue water,” “brown water,” and “minor” navies, they played an important role in the Revolutionary War and the development of the nation’s early flags.

How could the flag of the chief of state of this Caribbean nation have been portrayed with the wrong color in otherwise-definitive flag books (such as Neubecker) for most of its history? The author shows how a misreading of the original description led to the use of a light blue field instead of the standard dark blue, and proposes an update to the design of the flag.

While the roots of the country’s ensigns lie in those of the United Kingdom, those of New Zealand have often “broken the mold” with a potpourri of tradition and originality. The article describes over a dozen ensigns ranging from the national flag to the Ministry of Transport ensign.

Thomas A. Sebeok (1920-2001), a leading semiotician, developed a useful typology which the author uses to analyze national and subnational flags, exploring them as signals, icons, indexes, and symbols and using extensively illustrations.

A newly-developed flag displayed by avid Russian sports fans in support of their national teams marks a change in the use of the bear symbol—first only used by outsiders to represent Russia but now claimed by Russians as their own.

As Utah prepared to celebrate its long-awaited entry into the Union in 1896, locals sewed and displayed from the ceiling of the Mormon Tabernacle the largest flag ever made, a record which stood for 27 years and continued a tradition of large flags in Utah. This paper won the Driver Award in 2010.

When five white high school students in Morgan Hill, California, flouted a school policy against wearing flag-themed clothing, which had been aimed at reducing tensions on the day celebrating Mexican pride, the media firestorm decrying their treatment roiled the political airwaves.

This compelling essay describes the author’s own relationship with flags over a lifetime of engagement and study. This volume of the journal is dedicated to his memory.