About the Evolution of the U.S. Flag

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Harvey Kronberg with Austin Flag and Flagpole and one of the most frequent questions we get is about the evolution of the American flag. Of course, before there was an American flag there were Colonial flags and there were Battle flags, but the actual beginning, the first American flag was mandated by the Continental Congress on June 14th, 1777. They determined that there should be a flag for the United States. George Washington and a group of others from the Continental Congress went to go see Betsy Ross. They had some conversation about how to do it, at the time she ran an upholstery business, and after some conversation they decided that she could be entrusted with executing the first flag. The first flag did have thirteen stars and thirteen stripes. At one point they actually increased the number of stripes but in subsequent years they decided which each additional state that they would keep the original thirteen colonies as stripes and then they would add stars for each of the stripes. And that's the evolution of the American flag."