Monroe County Museum deputy director talks about Flag Day
JJ Przewozniak, deputy director of the Monroe County Museum, delivered “Why Do We Celebrate Flag Day?” Thursday afternoon. The virtual program was offered by Monroe County Community College.
For an hour, Przewozniak, who joined the museum in May, 2020, spoke about the origins of flags and the relatively recent addition of Flag Day.
“It’s a good opportunity to reflect on and ponder the meaning of some of our national symbols and the role that symbols play in our lives,” Przewozniak said.
The discussion began with an overview on symbols. Przewozniak showed several symbols, including a barbershop pole and a Bluetooth symbol. He also showed Jan van Eyck's 1434 painting, “The Arnolfini Portrait,” to illustrate how familiar items also can be symbols. A dog, for example, symbolized fidelity in the 1430s, while fruit was symbolic of wealth.
“All the little, tiny clues help show the bigger meaning. Symbols help us get through life and make things easier,” Przewozniak said. “Symbols help establish what things mean. We see symbols and make connections.”
Symbolism found its way into flag design.
“Flags are the most prominent and most recognized (image) of the values of millions of people,” Przewozniak said.
Flags, he said, were not invented by a single person. Rather, they came about gradually.
The earliest representations of nations were things like pennants, streamers and even busts of emperors. In ancient Asia and the Middle East, rulers were illustrated on national emblems. In ancient Europe, ornate 3D symbols identified soldiers.
The first modern flag was the Roman Vexillum, which is more akin to a modern banner. With the advent of woven fabrics, groups such as guilds, neighborhoods and military formations began to create their symbols from fabric.
“After trade with Asia was established, Europeans has quantities of silk and natural fibers of the world. Then, the large colorful cloth we recognized as proper flags started to be seen around the continent. They were very expensive. They were very grand status symbols of royal houses, armies. They were very ornate and colorful,” Przewozniak said.
But, gradually, flags began to represent entire nations, rather than royalty and armies. New flags, for example, were created in the late 1700s, as a result of revolutions in North America and France.
“They were a little different and associated with the kingdom and national identify. They were not limited to one cause or one religion,” Przewozniak said.
Once, purple was associated with royalty or the Catholic Church.
“If you look at flags of the world today, there is (little) purple, maybe four to six have purple,” Przewozniak said.
The U.S.’s Stars and Stripes style flag was established on June 14, 1777, with the second Continental Congress. There were only 13 states at the time. A resolution stated that the flag would have 13 stripes of alternating red and white and 13 stars.
Przewozniak dispelled a myth about the early U.S. flag.
“Betsy Ross didn’t sew it. There is no proof of that. That story came about in 1870. Ross’ grandson told the Historical Society of Pennsylvania a century later. Betsy Ross was a known seamstress, and she sewed flags. But there was no mention during her lifetime,” Przewozniak said.
Francis Hopkinson, a congressman and signer of the Declaration of Independence, is sometimes credited with designing the original flag.
“He sought payment for the design. His petition was denied on the grounds that he was not the only one consulted,” Przewozniak said. “We may never know who designed the first flag.”
Przewozniak showed several early U.S. flags that had features in common with the modern American flag. Those included the Sons of Liberty Flag, the Grand Union Flag, the Guilford Courthouse Flag, Serapis Flag and the Star Spangled Banner, which has 15 stars and 15 stripes.
“(The Star Spangled Banner) lasted 23 years and through five presidents. The original flag is at the Smithsonian," Przewozniak said.
The Monroe County Museum continues to fly this flag.
“It’s the same national flag that was in use when Monroe became a county in 1817 and the same one that inspired Francis Scott Key to write our national anthem when it flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore Sept. 12-15, 1814,” Przewozniak said.
A Zoom participant asked the meaning of the red, white and blue colors. Przewozniak said accounts varies.
“There is so much relativism, so much interpretation. Some say white stands for innocence, red for valor or the blood of those who came before. Blue is for justice,” he said.
On June 24, 1912, the order and proportions of the flag were prescribed by President William Howard Taft. Before that, flagmakers could take liberties with the placement of elements. In 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower made changes to star pattern. That pattern is still used today.
Flag Day was established, Przewozniak said, as an opportunity to express reverence for the flag.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day. On Aug. 3, 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday.
Przewozniak mentioned a couple of important flags to view in Monroe.
“The museum has the original state flag of the Seventh Michigan Volunteer Infantry that fought in the Civil War. It’s very impressive and awe-inspiring,” he said. “A legend says the very first American flag flown in Michigan was located at a blockhouse on the Wayne Stockage, which was originally located at the intersection of Monroe St. and Elm Ave. There’s a historical marker about this by St. Mary’s Church. If that’s true, that’s kind of a unique feather we can wear in our cap,” he said.
Przewozniak closed the program with a 1917 quote from President Woodrow Wilson, who declared Flag Day a holiday. In 1917, the U.S. was on the brink of World War I.
Wilson said, “This flag which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It had no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us – speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it.”
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe County Museum deputy director talks about Flag Day
