The flag of the District of Columbia is the official flag representing the district. Consisting of three red stars above two red bars on a white background, it is an armorial banner based on the coat of arms of Lawrence Washington (George Washington's great-grandfather) of Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire, England, in 1592. This coat of arms was used privately by the president in his home at Mount Vernon. In heraldry, the stars are called mullets and the coat of arms is blazoned as argent two bars gules, in chief three mullets of the second.

In 1938, the District Flag Commission was created by an Act of Congress "to procure a design for a distinctive flag for the District of Columbia". The District Flag Commission was composed of three non-elected federally-appointed members: the president of the Board of Commissioners, the secretary of war and the secretary of the Navy. The flag was selected by the commission with the help of the Commission of Fine Arts. Since no local group was involved in the selection process, Washingtonians saw the flag as a symbol of their lack of representation. More recently, it has been embraced by most DC residents and businesses, as well as the DC Statehood Movement as a symbol of their local identity in the 21st century.

The flag was ranked best with a score of 9.17 in a review of 150 American city flags by the North American Vexillological Association.2004 American City Flags Survey. Archived 2017-08-09 at the Wayback_Machine (Press Release). North American Vexillological Association. October 2, 2004.

History Washington family coat of arms

The Washington family traces its roots to England in the 13th century to Wessyngton, a small rural estate in the northeastern county of Durham where Sir William de Hertburn received a lordship. The original coat of arms evolved drastically over the next 150 years through alliances, land acquisitions and conflicts. In 1346, the first appearance of the family coat of arms as we would recognize it was recorded for Sir William de Wessyngton's great-grandson, but with argent (silver) horizontal bars and mullets on a gules (red) field. By the end of the 14th century, the current design was recorded for the family. After various events, the family was dispersed around England in Buckinghamshire, Kent, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire.The Life of George Washington, Commander-in-chief of the American Armies, Volume 2 - 1839 - Jared Sparks - page 424 In 1592, Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms confirmed the coat of arms upon Lawrence Washington (1566/68-1616) of Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Two grandsons of Lawrence Washington immigrated to English North America in the 1660s. One of them was John Washington, who immigrated to the colony of Virginia in 1656. His great-grandson was George Washington who would become the first president of the United States. George used the coat of arms extensively on his Mount Vernon plantation, including on personal objects and on the livery of his enslaved servants. This was a common practice among the American planter class.

After the United States became independent from Britain in 1783, George Washington started a communication by mail with Sir Isaac Heard, Garter Principal King of Arms of the College of Arms in London on the matter of the coat of arms. This correspondence took place between 1791 and 1796 and appears to have been genealogical and probably also heraldic in nature. The president and the Garter appear to have been working together to trace George Washington's ancestors and the link to the British Isles."To George Washington from Isaac Heard, 7 December 1791," Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-09-02-0154. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 9, 23 September 1791 – 29 February 1792, ed. Mark A. Mastromarino. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000, pp. 258–260.]"To George Washington from Isaac Heard, 9 August 1793," Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-13-02-0266. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 13, 1 June–31 August 1793, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2007, pp. 404–406.]To George Washington from Isaac Heard, 10 July 1796," Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00712 Mr. Heard confirmed the events that took place in England regarding his ancestors in a letter dated December 7, 1791. George Washington acknowledged that this was the same coat of arms used in the Colony prior to Independence.

Early history

Since its creation by Congress on July 9, 1790, by the Residence Act and for over a century, the District of Columbia was without an official flag and flew several unofficial banners, usually the flag of the D.C. National Guard.

In 1874, Colonel R. I. Fleming approved funds to purchased a National and regimental flag for the 1st regiment National Guard. The regimental flag had a blue field with the district's seal in the center.Evening star, June 26, 1874, p.4 The seal on the flag was differed, it was missing the liberty cap and salute of Washington. The whole thing costed $100 which would be around $2,939 today.

In the early 20th Century, the Thompsen-Bryan-Ellis Company was a firm of printers working on a flag book under the direction of Lieutenant Commander Byron McCandless who had a great interest in vexillology. The work was then taken over by the National Geographic. It became the now well known "Our Flag Number" (Volume XXXII - Number 4) which contained 1197 flags in full colors and an additional 300 in black and white.Dunn, Charles A. R. "The Origins of the District of Columbia Flag." Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C., 57/59, 1957, pp. 82–86. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40067187 On page 335, the National Guard's flag is shown as the representation of the District of Columbia. It showed a blue flag with two banners on it: one above with the word "Headquarters" and one below with "District of Columbia Militia" written on it. In between was an axe. The flag was made by General Harris and later displayed over his headquarters in 1897.

One of the artists working on the project was Charles A. R. Dunn. While drawing some of the flags, he noticed the lack of good design for many of the state flags with many simply being the state seal on a blue field. He also realized that the District of Columbia did not have a flag. He started thinking about designing a flag for the capital. He was very attracted to the design of the neighboring state flag of Maryland which used the arms of Lord Baltimore. It was only natural that he would remain in the field of heraldry for the inspiration of his design.

The flag was phased out in 1937, for one that displayed the capitol inside a sunburst on a red and white bar.

Early designs In 1902, Chairman Warner of Grand Army of the Republic wrote a letter to Commissioner Macfarland asking about a District flag. Macfarland wrote back a proposing a flag that was described as having stripes of red, white and blue, bearing the District's seal in the center with the motto: "Justitia Omnibus."Evening star, September 5, 1902, p.3

In 1921, Dunn had moved on to work for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. While working in the Mills Building, he drew a design for the flag in the office studio. He took the design directly from the coat of arms which belonged to the Washington family with no change to the design but did not release it at the time.

On February 8, 1924, the Daughters of the American Revolution managed to get a bill introduced in Congress to set up a commission to select a design. It was introduced by Chairman Reed of the House District Committee. The commission would be composed of the president of the United States, the secretary of war and the president of the board of commissioners of the district. It would have an appropriation of $1,500.Distinctive D.C. Flag is Authorized in Bill - Evening Star - February 08, 1924 - Page 1 On February 20, 1924, the Evening Star published a proposed design by John Mackaye Dunbar. It featured the shield portion of the coat-of-arms on a red field with a blue cross.Suggested for a District Flag - Evening Star - February 20, 1924 - Page 2 While this design was not endorsed by the D.A.R., they appreciated its display of "simplicity" in their February 24 meeting. They confirmed that their research that the Militia flag with an ax had been used as a flag but was not an appropriate flag for the district. They further rejected the idea of having the seal of the District of Columbia be part of the design for a flag due to its complexity. Charles Moore, the chairman of the Fine Arts Commission who had been consulted on the drafting of the bill, also agreed that the design should be simple and should emphasize in some way that the district is the seat of the central government of all the states.D.A.R. Committee Indorses D.C. Flag

In February of that year, Charles Dunn submitted a set of drawings in black and white and in color to the Evening Star which was published on March 16, 1924.Washington Coat-of-Arms Favored for District Flag - Evening Star - March 16, 1924 - Page 7 While the charges remained the same (two bars and three mullets) the tinctures had changed from all gules (red) to cobalt blue for the stars and vermilion for the bars. However, the enthusiasm died down soon after and the issue of a District of Columbia flag was not raised again until 1937.The D. C. Gets Flag - Evening Star - August 25, 1938

However, some opposition arose from the Southeast Citizens' Association. On March 26, 1924, they adopted a resolution opposing the adoption of a special flag for the District of Columbia. This resolution was apparently adopted after Capt. W.E. Luckett declared "that the only flag the District of Columbia should cherish as its own is the one flag for every American — the Stars and Stripes".Southeast Citizens Oppose Flag Issue - Evening Star - March 26, 1924 - Page 32

On May 12, 1924, at a gathering of the Federation of Citizen's Associations, an imitation meeting of the federation was staged for the purpose of entertaining the guests present at the event. Meetings were known for their fiery debates and the topic of choice in this piece was the adoption of a flag for the District of Columbia. The "special committee" was headed by Fred S. Walker and James W. Murphy who came forward with the emblem with Jesse C. Suter as a member:

The design which would become known as the Jest FlagTweet from the official Council of DC Twitter account on June 14, 2019 - https://twitter.com/councilofdc/status/1139545188202946563 and was made public again on June 14, 2019 as part of #DCFlagDay as part of a discussion on the history of the DC flag. It is currently in the holdings of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and was last displayed in 1960 according to Josh Gibson who found the flag.Tweet from the official Council of DC Twitter account on June 14, 2019 with the first appearance of the jest flag - https://twitter.com/councilofdc/status/1139722956920127488