Artifact Spotlight: The Unofficial 39 Star Flag

This flag came in to our office as part of a recent donation from the former owner of the M.J. Shields Building in downtown Moscow.  Can you figure out why this flag is unique?

At first glance, this might look like a rather unremarkable 19^th century American flag.  In fact, with its notable signs of deterioration, I was initially hesitant to accession it into our artifact collection.  Upon attempting to date the flag, however, I realized that we had a curious piece of history on our hands.  With its 39 stars, this is actually not an official American flag!  

In the late decades of the 19^th century, the United States government admitted most of the western states in quick succession.  Instead of issuing a new flag with the appropriate number of stars each time a state was admitted, the government would wait until July 4^th to “update” Old Glory.  For example, Colorado was admitted on August 1^st, 1876 as the nation’s 38^th state, but the 38-star flag was not unveiled until July 4^th, 1877.  

In the early fall of 1889, flag manufacturers were gearing up for the admittance of the Dakota Territory.  A small number of producers bet that Dakota would be the only new state added before July 4^th, 1890.  As it turned out, however, North and South Dakota were admitted as separate entities in November of 1889.  In fact the gamble taken by the makers of the 39-star flag had been exceptionally ill-informed, because Montana and Washington were also added during that month as the 41^st and 42^nd states.  On July 3^rd, 1890 Idaho was admitted, meaning that the next official American flag would have 43 stars.  

The 39-star flag is, therefore, unofficial and rather uncommon.  We are excited to add this unique piece of American history to our rich flag collection.