BETSY ROSS Maker of the First American Flag
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Minting America: Coinage and the Contestation of American Identity, 1775-1800
ABSTRACT MINTING AMERICA: COINAGE AND THE CONTESTATION OF AMERICAN IDENTITY, 1775-1800 by James Patrick Ambuske “Minting America” investigates the ideological and culture links between American identity and national coinage in the wake of the American Revolution. In the Confederation period and in the Early Republic, Americans contested the creation of a national mint to produce coins. The catastrophic failure of the paper money issued by the Continental Congress during the War for Independence inspired an ideological debate in which Americans considered the broader implications of a national coinage. More than a means to conduct commerce, many citizens of the new nation saw coins as tangible representations of sovereignty and as a mechanism to convey the principles of the Revolution to future generations. They contested the physical symbolism as well as the rhetorical iconology of these early national coins. Debating the stories that coinage told helped Americans in this period shape the contours of a national identity. MINTING AMERICA: COINAGE AND THE CONTESTATION OF AMERICAN IDENTITY, 1775-1800 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History by James Patrick Ambuske Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2006 Advisor______________________ Andrew Cayton Reader_______________________ Carla Pestana Reader_______________________ Daniel Cobb Table of Contents Introduction: Coining Stories………………………………………....1 Chapter 1: “Ever to turn brown paper -
Pennsylvania Magazine of HISTORY and BIOGRAPHY
THE Pennsylvania Magazine OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY John Swanwick: Spokesman for "Merchant-Republicanism ' In Philadelphia, 1790-179 8 HE literature on the era of Jeffersonian democracy is largely- dominated by the great triumvirate of Thomas Jefferson, TJames Madison, and Albert Gallatin.* During the last dec- ade, however, historians have been paying more attention to state and local political leaders who played significant roles in the Demo- cratic-Republican movement.1 Among the more notable second-rank * In a somewhat abbreviated form this article was presented as a paper at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association held at Williamsport, Pa., on Oct. 22-23, 1971. The author wishes to express his gratitude to his colleague, Bernard Sternsher, for his helpful editorial suggestions. 1 Historians have given most of their attention to secondary Federalists, but since i960 the number of modern scholarly biographies of less prominent Republicans has increased. We now have first-rate biographies on Robert R. Livingston, David Rittenhouse, Aaron Burr, Daniel D. Tompkins, John Breckinridge, Luther Martin, Benjamin Rush (2), Samuel Smith, and James Monroe. There are also a number of good unpublished doctoral dissertations. Among the more notable studies are those on Elkanah Watson, Simon Snyder, Mathew Carey, Samuel Latham Mitchell, Melancton Smith, Levi Woodbury, William Lowndes, William Duane, William Jones (2), Eleazer Oswald, Thomas McKean, Levi Lincoln, Ephraim Kirby, and John Nicholson. Major biographies of Tench Coxe by Jacob E. Cooke, of John Beckley by Edmund Berkeley, and of Thomas McKean by John M. Coleman and Gail Stuart Rowe are now in progress. 131 132 ROLAND M. -
Landmark Towns Regional Revitalization Strategy
LANDMARK TOWNS REGIONAL REVITALIZATION STRATEGY Introduction The Landmark Towns Initiative is a cooperative venture between the historic boroughs of Bristol, Morrisville, New Hope and Yardley Pennsylvania The purpose of the Landmark Towns Initiative is to establish a regional approach to economic development and community revitalization focused on the commercial opportunities and growth in tourism identified by four the Delaware riverfront boroughs of Bristol, Morrisville, New Hope and Yardley Bucks County. To pursue these opportunities, the four municipalities joined with the Delaware & Lehigh Heritage Corridor Commission Inc., in a 'Cooperative Venture' in the spring of 2006 and produced a scope of work and a work plan. This $25,000 planning effort, (see attached) was self funded and has resulted in the development of this following strategic plan. Since September of 2006, staff of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Commission and the selected consulting firm of Keystone Heritage Group LLC. have worked with the four municipalities to develop this strategic plan. This effort, which has been done in regular consultation with Ms. Antoinette Crawford Major, Regional Director DCED, has included town meeting and site visits within each municipality, meetings with various stakeholders and regular monthly meetings of the Landmark Towns of Bucks County Steering Committee They are now seeking the Commonwealth's support, through the New Communities Program, for participation in the multi-year Regional Coordinators Program Elements -
Colonial Flags 1775-1781
THE AMERICAN FLAG IS BORN American Heritage Information Library and Museum about A Revolutionary Experience GRAND UNION BETSY ROSS The first flag of the colonists to have any During the Revolutionary War, several patriots made resemblance to the present Stars and Stripes. It was flags for our new Nation. Among them were Cornelia first flown by ships of the Colonial Fleet on the Bridges, Elizabeth (Betsy) Ross, and Rebecca Young, all Delaware River. On December 3, 1775 it was raised of Pennsylvania, and John Shaw of Annapolis, Maryland. aboard Capt. Esek Hopkin's flagship Alfred by John Although Betsy Ross, the best known of these persons, Paul Jones, then a navy lieutenant. Later the flag was made flags for 50 years, there is no proof that she raised on the liberty pole at Prospect Hill, which was made the first Stars and Stripes. It is known she made near George Washington's headquarters in flags for the Pennsylvania Navy in 1777. The flag Cambridge, MA. It was the unofficial national flag on popularly known as the "Betsy Ross Flag", which July 4, 1776, Independence Day; and it remained the arranged the stars in a circle, did not appear until the unofficial national flag and ensign of the Navy until early 1790's. June 14, 1777 when the Continental Congress Provided as a Public Service authorized the Stars and Stripes. for over 115 Years COLONIAL THIRD MOUNTAIN REGIMENT The necessity of a common national flag had not been thought of until the appointment of a committee composed of Benjamin Franklin, Messrs. -
The Library of Robert Morris, Civil Rights Lawyer & Activist
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School Boston College Law School Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School Boston College Law School Faculty Papers 6-21-2018 The Library of Robert Morris, Civil Rights Lawyer & Activist Laurel Davis Boston College Law School, [email protected] Mary Sarah Bilder Boston College Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/lsfp Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Legal Biography Commons, Legal History Commons, Legal Profession Commons, Political History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Laurel Davis and Mary Sarah Bilder. "The Library of Robert Morris, Civil Rights Lawyer & Activist." (2018). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College Law School Faculty Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Library of Robert Morris, Antebellum Civil Rights Lawyer & Activist∗ Laurel Davis** and Mary Sarah Bilder*** Contact information: Boston College Law Library Attn: Laurel Davis 885 Centre St. Newton, MA 02459 Abstract (50 words or less): This article analyzes the Robert Morris library, the only known extant, antebellum African American-owned library. The seventy-five titles, including two unique pamphlet compilations, reveal Morris’s intellectual commitment to full citizenship, equality, and participation for people of color. The library also demonstrates the importance of book and pamphlet publication as means of community building among antebellum civil rights activists. -
George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution by David Head
2021-007 25 Jan. 2021 A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of The American Revolution by David Head . New York: Pegasus, 2019. Pp. xvii, 284. ISBN 978–1–64313–081–1. Review by Ciaran Jones, St. Mary’s University School of Law ([email protected]). In A Crisis of Peace , historian David Head (Univ. of Central Florida) recounts the waning days of the American Revolution, when anger over Congress’s inability to pay Continental officers roiled the Northern Army encamped in upstate New York. He argues that the gathering of officers at Newburgh in March 1783, which inflamed fears of a military coup and goaded Congress into a par- tial settlement of the soldiers’ grievances, was not the product of a conspiracy. “My research has made me skeptical that a true conspiracy unfolded at Newburgh” (xii). Head eliminates possible conspirators and argues that prominent nationalists acted independently during the winter of 1782–83 to achieve greater unity among the states. He discusses George Washington’s leadership ability, the economic uncertainty afflicting Continental officers, the severity of Congress’s fiscal predicament, and the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The United States struggled financially for most of the Revolutionary War. As expenses mounted in the wake of Lexington and Concord, Congress printed more money, which caused soaring inflation: “In January 1777, $1.25 in paper equaled $1 in specie. By April 1781, it took $167.50 in paper to get $1 of specie, a 13,300 percent increase” (13). As the Continental dollar ceased to cir- culate due to its diminishing value, states issued soldiers loan certificates as payment. -
Mary Pickersgill: the Woman Who Sewed the Star-Spangled Banner
Social Studies and the Young Learner 25 (4), pp. 27–29 ©2013 National Council for the Social Studies Mary Pickersgill: The Woman Who Sewed The Star-Spangled Banner Megan Smith and Jenny Wei Just imagine: you live in a time before electricity. There are no sewing machines, no light bulbs, and certainly no television shows to keep you entertained. You spend six days a week working 12-hours each day inside your small home with four teenage girls and your elderly mother. This was the life of Mary Pickersgill, the woman who sewed the Star-Spangled Banner. This image is the only known likeness of Mary Pickersgill, Each two-foot stripe of the flag was sewn from two widths of though it doesn’t paint an accurate picture of Mary in 1813. British wool bunting. The stars were cut from cotton. Though Visitors who see this image in the “Star-Spangled Banner” the flag seems unusually large to our eyes (nearly a quarter of online exhibition” (amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner) the size of a modern basketball court), it was a standard “gar- often envision Mary as a stern grandmother, sewing quietly rison” size meant to be flown from large flagpoles and seen in her rocking chair. No offense to the stern grandmoth- from miles away. ers of the world, but Mary was actually forty years Mary Pickersgill had learned the art of flag making younger than depicted here when she made the from her mother, Rebecca Young, who made a Star-Spangled Banner, and was already a suc- living during the Revolution sewing flags, blan- cessful entrepreneur. -
National Constitution Center Fun Facts
CONTACTS: Ashley Berke Lauren Saul Director of Public Relations Public Relations Manager 215.409.6693 215.409.6895 [email protected] [email protected] NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER FUN FACTS The Making of the National Constitution Center: • The National Constitution Center is the first-ever museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution. • A permanent memorial to the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia was first proposed around the celebration of the centennial of the Constitution in 1887. It did not begin to take shape until the idea was proposed again 100 years later during the celebration of the document’s bicentennial in 1987. • President Ronald Reagan signed the “Constitution Heritage Act of 1988” on September 16, 1988, which established that a national center for educating, studying, and interpreting the Constitution was to be built at a site on or near Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. • The Center is made of American products, including 85,000 square feet of Indiana limestone, 2.6 million pounds of steel, and a half-million cubic feet of concrete. • The limestone used in building the Constitution Center is from the same quarry as the Empire State Building’s materials. • The Center’s address is 525 Arch Street, specifically chosen because May 25th (5/25) is the date that the Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia in 1787, right across the street from our building at Independence Hall. • During the design process, Governor Ed Rendell (who was at the time Mayor of Philadelphia) came up with the idea of putting the Preamble on the front of our building. -
National Register of Historic Places Inventory
Form No. ^0-306 (Rev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM FOR FEDERAL PROPERTIES SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOWTO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS NAME HISTORIC Independence National Historical Park AND/OR COMMON LOCATION STREET & NUMBER 313 Walnut Street CITY. TOWN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT t Philadelphia __ VICINITY OF STATE CODE COUNTY CODE PA 19106 CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS PRESENT USE ^DISTRICT —PUBLIC —OCCUPIED —AGRICULTURE 2LMUSEUM -BUILDING(S) —PRIVATE X-UNOCCUPIED —^COMMERCIAL 2LPARK .STRUCTURE 2EBOTH —WORK IN PROGRESS —XEDUCATIONAL ^.PRIVATE RESIDENCE -SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITION ACCESSIBLE —ENTERTAINMENT —RELIGIOUS -OBJECT —IN PROCESS X-YES: RESTRICTED ^GOVERNMENT —SCIENTIFIC —BEING CONSIDERED — YES: UNRESTRICTED —INDUSTRIAL —TRANSPORTATION —NO —MILITARY —OTHER: REGIONAL HEADQUABIER REGION STREET & NUMBER CITY. TOWN STATE PHILA.,PA 19106 VICINITY OF COURTHOUSE, ____________PhiladelphiaREGISTRY OF DEEDS,ETC. _, . - , - , Ctffv.^ Hall- - STREET & NUMBER n^ MayTftat" CITY. TOWN STATE Philadelphia, PA 19107 TITLE DATE —FEDERAL —STATE —COUNTY _LOCAL CITY. TOWN CONDITION CHECK ONE CHECK ONE ^EXCELLENT —DETERIORATED —UNALTERED 2S.ORIGINALSITE _GOOD h^b Jk* SANWJIt's ALTERED _MOVED DATE. —FAIR _UNEXPOSED Description: In June 1948, with passage of Public Law 795, Independence National Historical Park was established to preserve certain historic resources "of outstanding national significance associated with the American Revolution and the founding and growth of the United States." The Park's 39.53 acres of urban property lie in Philadelphia, the fourth largest city in the country. All but .73 acres of the park lie in downtown Phila-* delphia, within or near the Society Hill and Old City Historic Districts (National Register entries as of June 23, 1971, and May 5, 1972, respectively). -
Betsy Ross US Flag
CS 112 Design of the Betsy Ross US Flag Problem. Reproduce the US flag for the original 13 states designed by Betsy Ross. See the following figures for her flag and the current specifications for the US flag. I assume the current specifications comefromthe her flag but with 50 stars replacing 13. The flag of Betsy Ross has three separate parts: the 13 red and white stripes, the blue rectangle andthecircle of 13 white stars. I realize that I can reuse the functions fillRectangle() and fillStar() from the previous lab. So my design will focus on a function to draw a circle of 13 white stars in the upper left corner of the flag. I will call this function drawCircleOfStars(). The figure indicates that the center of the circle is the centerof the blue rectangle. I will use the current specifications for the US flag for the Betsy Ross flag. I decidetouse as the diameter of the circle of stars the value C - E - F from the current specification. Of course I must multiply C-E-F /2 by a constant SIZE, say of 200 pixels. I will call this value of C-E-F /2 circleRadius. The specification also gives the diameter of a star as K. So the radius of eachstaris K/ 2 . I will name this value starRadius. The letters A through L refer to the values on the above specification in the right figure. The angle between two adjacent stars in the circle is 2 π/ 13. I will name this variable dt for change of angle t. -
Historic Flag Presentation
National Sojourners, Incorporated Historic Flag Presentation 16 July 2017 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Type of Program 4 Program Description and Background Information 4 Origin of a Historic Flag Presentation 4 What is a Historic Flag Presentation? 4 Intended Audience of a Historic Flag Presentation 4 Number required to present a Historic Flag Presentation 5 Presentation Attire 5 List of Props Needed and Where Can Props Be Obtained 5 List of Support Equipment (computer, projector, screen, etc.) 5 Special Information 5 Script for an Historic Flag Presentation 6-20 Purpose 6 General Flag Overview 6 Bedford Flag—April 1775 6 Rhode Island Regiment Flag—May 1775 8 Bunker Hill Flag—June 1775 8 Washington’s Cruisers Flag—October 1775 8 Gadsden Flag—December 1775 8 Grand Union Flag—January 1776 9 First Navy Jack—January 1776 9 First Continental Regiment Flag—March 1776 9 Betsy Ross Flag—May 1776 9 Moultrie Flag—June 1776 9 Independence Day History 9 13-Star Flag—June 1777 10 Bennington Flag—August 1777 10 Battle of Yorktown 10 Articles of Confederation 10 15-Star Flag (Star-Spangled Banner)—May 18951 11 20-Star Flag—April 1818 11 Third Republic of Texas Flag—1839-1845 11 Confederate Flag—1861-1865 12 The Pledge to the Flag 11 1909 12 48-Star Flag—September 1912-1959 13 2 World War I 12 Between the Wars 13 World War II 13 Battle of Iwo Jima 13 End of World War II 13 Flag Day 14 Korean War 14 50-Star Flag—July 1960-Present 14 Toast to the Flag 15 Old Glory Speaks 16 That Ragged Old Flag 17 3 Type of Program The Historic Flag Presentation is both a patriotic and an educational program depending on the audience. -
Betsy Ross's 5-Pointed Star - How Did She Do That?
Betsy Ross's 5-pointed star - How did she do that? 1952 Betsy Ross stamp depicting her meeting with the Flag Committee composed of George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross Elizabeth Griscom Ross (January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836) There is some debate as to whether Betsy Ross really sewed the first U.S. American Flag but it is generally acknowledged that she was an integral part in redefining its final design. Betsy Ross's daughter, Rachel Fletcher, testified in 1870, "[The committee] showed her [Betsy Ross] a drawing roughly executed, of the flag as it was proposed to be made by the committee, and that she saw in it some defects in its proportions and the arrangement and shape of the stars. That she said it was square and a flag should be one third longer than its width, that the stars were scattered promiscuously over the field, and she said they should be either in lines or in some adopted form as a circle, or a star, and that the stars were six-pointed in the drawing, and she said they should be five-pointed." Source: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/ Evidently the committee thought that it would be too hard to create 5-pointed stars so they designed 6- pointed stars. Betsy educated these famous men by showing them a simple folding with only one scissors cut that produced an eloquent 5-pointed star. 1. Use the instructions on the next page to create your own "perfect" pentagram. 2. Use the picture of the fold lines on the third page to try to work out (and come to class ready to explain your reasoning of) why this works? We found several "make a 5-pointed star with only one cut" recipes on line.