File:Flag of the United States (1795–1818).svg

Size of this PNG preview of this SVG file: 800 × 571 pixels. Other resolutions: 320 × 229 pixels | 640 × 457 pixels | 1,024 × 731 pixels | 1,280 × 914 pixels | 2,560 × 1,829 pixels.

Original file ‎(SVG file, nominally 840 × 600 pixels, file size: 914 bytes)

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Description

Digital reproduction of the Star Spangled Banner Flag, the 15-star and 15-stripe U.S. garrison flag which flew over Fort McHenry following the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Seeing the flag during the battle, and again the following morning, inspired Francis Scott Key's song The Star-Spangled Banner, now the U.S. national anthem. During the battle a smaller "storm flag" was flown; it was replaced by this larger flag early the next morning, which is the flag Key saw then. This larger flag is now displayed at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. For several decades it remained in the family of Fort McHenry's commanding officer, before being given to the Smithsonian in 1912. The family cut pieces out of the flag from time to time as gifts.

The original flag was 42 feet long and 30 feet high, with each stripe being about two feet, and the stars being about two feet in diameter. It was made by Mary Young Pickersgill and her assistants. More info on the original dimensions here. The stars seem to mostly point to the side, except for one (the bottom right) which points down. One star has been cut out of the actual flag, so I'm guessing that originally pointed to the side as well (Fort McHenry flies a flag (File:Ft mchenry 15starflag.jpg) with a similar star pattern, but it looks like they are all to the side, and the other dimensions look similar to a modern flag). I guesstimated other dimensions and star positions based on File:Star-Spangled-Banner-1908-1919.jpg; the union (blue area) looks to be about 19 feet wide. The star rows look to be evenly distributed; i.e. the distance between the top/bottom edges and the center of a star row looks to be about the same as the distance between two (centers of) rows. Not so left-to-right; they are pretty close to the right edge and even closer to the hoist side. Also available here, page 12.

Source

Own work

Author

Carl Lindberg

Permission
(Reusing this file)

I don't think this is eligible for copyright (just duplicating as closely as possible an existing PD flag) but if in case it is, then I release all rights to the public domain.

This work is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship.

Other versions

Photo of actual flag

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

	Date/Time	Dimensions	User	Comment
current	02:01, 30 September 2023	840 × 600 (914 bytes)	Clindberg	Reverted to version as of 19:09, 7 June 2023 (UTC). The recent reversion broke the star placement; this is supposed to be a close representation of the star spangled banner flag.
	19:18, 10 July 2023	1,050 × 750 (1 KB)	Sus2021	Reverted to version as of 18:31, 6 June 2023 (UTC)
	19:09, 7 June 2023	840 × 600 (914 bytes)	Clindberg	Reverted to version as of 16:17, 17 January 2022 (UTC). This was the most recent version with the correct star placement matching the Star Spangled Banner flag, which this upload is supposed to represent.
	18:31, 6 June 2023	1,050 × 750 (1 KB)	Sus2021	Reverted to version as of 14:09, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
	17:59, 11 August 2022	840 × 600 (1 KB)	Clindberg	Reverted to version as of 01:30, 5 September 2016 (UTC). This was the most recent version with the correct star placement matching the Star Spangled Banner flag, which this upload is supposed to represent.
	22:20, 10 August 2022	1,500 × 900 (4 KB)	Plasamas	Reverted to version as of 23:07, 16 July 2022 (UTC) colours more accurate to the original object
	23:08, 16 July 2022	840 × 600 (914 bytes)	Sus2021	Reverted to version as of 16:17, 17 January 2022 (UTC)
	23:07, 16 July 2022	1,500 × 900 (4 KB)	Sus2021	Reverted to version as of 03:26, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
	16:17, 17 January 2022	840 × 600 (914 bytes)	Mike Rohsopht	optimized, removed color bleed
	01:30, 5 September 2016	840 × 600 (1 KB)	EclecticArkie	svg code reduction