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This month's feature photograph is courtesy of Evelyn Creviston, '71MA75, who resides in Carmel. Creviston's husband constructed the BSU plant stand, which is displayed in their home. We invite you to submit your favorite Ball State-related photograph for consideration for a future magazine. Send us your full-color picture, with complete description and attribution, to: Editor, Ball State Alumnus, Ball State University Alumni Association, Muncie, IN 47306. To submit photos electronically, first contact the Editor via e-mail: cshepper@bsu.edu.
Of my bars, and their heaven of stars overhead--By the symbol conjoined of them all, skyward cast,
As I float from the steeple, or flap at the mast, Or droop o'er the sod where the long grasses nod,
My name is as old as the glory of God...So I came by the name of Old Glory.
From "The Name of Old Glory"
James Whitcomb Riley, 1898
A history lesson:
To understand the deep emotional ties generally attached to the American flag, perhaps it's best to start at the beginning. In 1776 we were a new republic. Our birth and subsequent growth was a circumstance of a desire for religious freedom and no taxation without representation. Rights were important and we had gained the right to be a self-governing people.
With independence came a need for a banner representative of our new status, to identify ourselves at sea as much as anything else. And so it was that the Stars and Stripes was born. On June 14, 1777 our forefathers resolved, "that the flag of the 13 United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation." A new flag for a new union, each state doubly represented.
Growth came quickly, and with an ever-expanding nation came also a need to adjust the flag in order to keep it representative. It was in 1818 that legislation was adopted that we follow today: "that from and after the fourth day of July next, the flag of the United States be 13 horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, that the union have 20 stars, white in a blue field; that on the admission of every new state into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag, and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth of July next succeeding such admission."
A uniform design was ordered by President William Taft in 1912. It was in 1960, after Hawaii was admitted to statehood in 1959, that our national banner became a flag of seven red and six white stripes, with 50 five-pointed stars in nine rowsfrom a union conceived of 13 colonies.
Flag Day, a time to commemorate the adoption of the first Stars and Stripes, was enacted by President Woodrow Wilson on June 14, 1916, and the Pledge of Allegiance was written and published in 1892, in connection with the celebration of Columbus Day.
We pause each year on Independence Day to remember our freedom, in whatever way we choose. As we go about the daily routine afterward, it also is good to remember why we are free and what the flag represents. Whether we refer to it as Old Glory, or the Stars and Stripes, or our national banner, or simply the American flag, let us proudly pay tribute to the red, the white, and the blue; the stars and the stripes; and the republic for which it stands.
It is more than just a piece of colored cloth. It is an enduring symbol of what America is about.
