History of Flag Day
By Lorna Hart - Special to OVP
Deeply embedded in our American mythos is the story of the seamstress Betsy Ross being commissioned by General George Washington to create a flag for the newly formed United States.
According to the Library of Congress, Ross sewed American flags in the Ross family’s Philadelphia upholstery shop and probably met Washington, but was not the designer of the first flag.
Instead, the credit is given to Francis Hopkinson. Hopkinson was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The only evidence pointing to him as the designer of the flag is a bill he submitted to Congress “for designing the flag, you owe me two casks of ale.”