Star Spangled Images

This board holds the pictures gathered for Star Spangled Images, one of the books in James Lantos's Pictorial America series of illustrated histories. It collects American patriotic imagery: the flag, the symbols and the figures that the country used to picture itself.

The flag comes first. The Continental Congress adopted a flag of 13 stripes and 13 stars in 1777, without saying how the stars should be arranged, so early flags vary widely. In September 1814, Francis Scott Key watched the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore and wrote the poem that became The Star-Spangled Banner. It was made the national anthem in 1931. Stars were added as states joined, and the 48-star flag seen in many of these pictures flew from 1912 to 1959.

Before Uncle Sam, the country was often drawn as Columbia, a woman in flowing robes, sometimes wearing a liberty cap or a crown of stars. Uncle Sam came later. The name is usually traced to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer in Troy, New York, who supplied the Army during the War of 1812. Cartoonists such as Thomas Nast developed the figure with a beard and striped trousers, and in 1917 James Montgomery Flagg drew him pointing straight at the viewer for a World War I recruiting poster.

Patriotic imagery grew sharply in the late 1800s. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892, and schools began daily flag ceremonies. Flag Day was proclaimed in 1916. Fourth of July celebrations filled the streets with bunting, parades and fireworks, and both world wars produced huge numbers of patriotic posters.

Look for the stars. Counting them on a flag is often the quickest way to date a picture. Look also at how the same symbols, the eagle, the shield, the liberty cap, appear in very different settings, from solemn engravings to advertisements for soap and tobacco.