My Genealogy Hound

The Star Spangled Banner - Flag Day - June 14th- vintage postcard

The Star-Spangled Banner or The American Flag as pictured on a postcard issued in 1907. Interestingly, even though this card was issued in 1907, the card features 50 stars even though there would not be 50 states until 52 years later when on August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state. The card was issued by the famed publisher of England, Raphael Tuck & Sons, known as "Art Publishers to their majesties the King & Queen." The postcard was printed in Saxony.

In 1885, a school teacher (and later a dentist) by the name of B. J. Cigrand in Waubeka, Wisconsin began the push for an annual celebration of a nationwide Flag Day celebration on each June 14th. Each year thereafter he continued to promote the idea of Flag Day with numerous speeches and thousands of editorials published in newspapers and magazines across the nation. Eventually, Cigrand founded and became the president of the The National Flag Day Association. His promotional efforts resulted in numerous Flag Day celebrations in local communities and even in some state wide events. On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow proclaimed the first national observance of Flag Day. Thirty-three years later on August 3, 1949, President Harry S Truman signed an Act of Congress which called for the official national observance of National Flag Day to be celebrated on each June 14th. Cigrand who had worked so hard over many years, for an official Flag Day did see the rising popularity of the idea, but not long enough to see it become a nationwide annual day of observance. Cigrand had died suddenly of a heart attack on May 16, 1932.

Why June 14th? It was on June 14, 1777, that the "Flag Resolution" was passed by the Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress stating: "Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."