In 1992 the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan adopted a completely new flag, using as primary charges five “guls” or carpet medallions. The article explains the complex geometry and symbolism of the flag, including why the crescent points toward the hoist, unlike most other Islamic flags.

During the past 275 years the thousands of yacht clubs in the world have shared a common symbol—a burgee. Individuals, club officers, and events all used flags. This article provides an overview of the subject and suggests a classification system.

The IDF utilizes three types of symbols on its flags and related devices: biblical, Zionist, and new symbols. This article describes the breadth of these symbols, and explains why the two most likely Israeli symbols—the Star of David and the menorah—are seldom employed.

In June 1989 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the Texas law against flag-burning, triggering an effort to amend the U.S. constitution. This article traces the history of that amendment to its defeat a year later, and subsequent events in the controversy through 1995.

The signal flags used from the 1600s in America’s coastal whale fishery echoed those employed by the English, Dutch, and Basques on the other side of the Atlantic. Using signal towers on land helped alert communities to the presence of whales. This paper traces their use into the 1900s.

This article provides a discussion of the Znamia Pobedy — the Soviet Banner of Victory from World War II — covering the sometimes contradictory stories behind the flag raised by Soviet soldiers over the Reichstag in Berlin. It also discusses post-war use in the U.S.S.R. and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

This article provides a discussion of the flags of the Confederacy, illustrated by historical flags of the period. The author discusses how one flag pattern gained primacy in the South during the Civil War, and how that flag is viewed in contemporary U.S. culture.

This paper uses communication theory to study the flag culture of Tennessee. The author applies concepts such as semiotics, pragmatic unity, and visual synecdoche to the examination of flags and flag-derived logos used throughout the Volunteer State.

This essay conveys the story of the first mass recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in Utah. The author demonstrates how the event was intended to demonstrate to the rest of the country that Mormans in Utah were loyal Americans.

Recent research has questioned whether the Grand Union flag (a.k.a. “Continental Colors”) really flew at Prospect Hill, Boston, on 1 January 1776. Eye­witness accounts use the term “union flag” and a new interpretation theorizes this to have referred specifically to the British Union Jack and not the characteristic “union flag with 13 red-and-white stripes.” This paper rebuts the new interpretation and supports the conventional history through an examination of eighteenth-century linguistic standards, contextual historical trends, and additional primary and secondary sources.

This lecture discusses five flags which the Latter-Day Saints used from 1830 to 1848 in various parts of the United States to represent their early allegiances to God and to the United States. Despite the many problems in the relationship between the Latter-Day Saints and the American government at this time and in the decades to come, the Mormons clearly attempted to show that they could be loyal to both their faith and the political authority.

Covering a little-known subject, this article catalogues the use of flags within slave uprisings in the New World in the nineteenth century. The author demonstrates how the slave banners were typically modelled on the flags of their former masters but also often incorporated African symbols in an attempt to indicate physical freedom as well as the attempt to signal the former slave groups’ equality with their former oppressors.

This Driver Award-winning paper examines the use of vexillidolatry—the reverence of flags—in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). The author demonstrates the deeply-held reverence to DPRK flags—national, political, and military—which North Koreans hold. This is not the result of political pressure, but more the result of the people’s view of the national flag as a symbol of independence and their strong and widely-displayed patriotism.

In the 1950s and 1960s, all sides in the struggle over civil rights used the U.S. flag in different and evolving ways, competing for the power of the nation’s primary symbol. This article traces in scholarly detail how flag use influenced and gave images to the era.

The government agency that did the most to spread the flag across the western United States in its first century was not the Army, not the Navy, but the Indian Department. Its “presentation flags,” often of a variant design with eagles or coats of arms in their cantons or with alternate star patterns, combine with the military’s standard flags in this article based on many primary sources.

Filling in a little-known era between the author’s definitive books and articles on the U.S. flag desecration controversy, this article examines the role of the RCP in post-Viet Nam War flag-burning incidents culminating in the Supreme Court’s landmark Texas v. Johnson ruling.

A year in Singapore as a Fulbright fellow provided the author the opportunity to observe flag use in a country whose national symbols reflect its unique politics, history, and culture. Many photographs illustrate reflections on the strategies Singapore uses to make the flag a centerpiece of civic pride.

The world’s foremost vexillologist compares the sciences of heraldry and vexillology, through a review of civic symbolism in the United States and its manifestation on flags. He distinguishes it from European heraldry, and challenges heraldists to apply the same scientific principles as vexillology.

The most famous flag incident in Kansas history may have actually occurred in Nebraska. The mythology surrounding Zebulon Pike’s 1806 encounter with the Republican Pawnee Indians yields to present-day historical analysis.

The United States has displayed distinguishing marks on all of its military aircraft, from the observation balloons of the Civil War, through the airplanes of the First and Second World Wars, to today’s cruise missiles. Lavish illustrations show how the U.S. insignia have changed and adapted over time. (1997)