Old Glory
Unfurling History
by: Karal Ann Marling
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The Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia in the winter of 1776, received an urgent message. Please fix upon some particular color for a flag. It was from an understandably exasperated George Washington. The Continental Armies had taken the field under a babble of emblems and devices. Even the Grand Union flag that flew over naval vessels confused the issue with its display of the crosses of the British flag in its canton.

So, at Washington's request, Congress again wrestled with the design, and on June 14, 1777, almost a year after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, on the date still celebrated as Flag Day, the United States finally had a flag all its own.

Every era has a flag story to tell. Suffragettes, Know-Nothings, Boy Scouts, and the Ku Klux Klan have all claimed it as their own. It flies in moments of victory, on Iwo Jima during World War II, and in moments of pro-found sorrow, as when America grieved for the victims of 9/11.

Old Glory: Unfurling History describes the histories and myths surrounding the flag of the United States of America from its revolutionary birth to the present day, and is lavishly illustrated from the archives of the Library of Congress.


Karal Ann Marling is Professor of Art History and of American Studies at the University of Minnesota. She has published extensively, and her recent books include: George Washington Slept Here, Graceland: Going Home with Elvis, and Illusions of Eden: Visions of the American Heartland.

The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 126 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include nearly 19 million books, 2.6 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, and 56 million manuscripts.

The Allentown Art Museum was established in the 1930s. In 1959, the museum received a gift of fifty-three Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures from Samuel H. Kress. In 1975 the museum's holdings were expanded with a large collection of textiles and another gift of works on paper. Today the Allentown Art Museum, with its collection of over 11,000 works of art, embraces the broadest possible audience, offering a tremendous variety of quality exhibitions and educational programs.

 
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ISBN: 1-59373-019-5
Publication date: June 2004
Format: hardcover, 6" x 6"
4-color throughout
Extent: 64pp, 70 illustrations
Category: American History