16-star, 16-stripe Stonington flag is older than the Star Spangled Banner

In 1794, the 2nd Flag Act was signed into law by George Washington. It called for 15-stars and 15 stripes.  Many strange variants fit the simple sentences in the 1st Act, and most are considered "Official Flags".  But flag and sail makers continued creating flags, as they had done before the 2nd flag act. The village of Stonington, Connecticut, on the Atlantic, had flown a 16-star, 16-stripe flag. They had had added a 16th stripe before the British attack. This attack came shortly before the surrender of Washington, D.C., more than a month before the British attack of Baltimore. 

Tennessee-US Flag, Stonington Battle Flag

Why was Stonington flying the 16-star flag that was the "US-Tennessee State Flag"? Being on the Atlantic coast, they may have seen 16-star flags and assumed this was the latest update to the 15-star flag, which would not become the "Star Spangled Banner" until after the shelling of Fort McHenry, a month later. The Stonington flag had started with 15 stripes. A stripe was added later, probably to match the Tennessee flag they had seen on shipping.


Some think that the versions created for the states 16 through 19 were true U.S. Flags, even though they do not fit either the first or second Flag Acts. The second flag act started adding both stripes and stars for each state. Folks... usually sail makers... decided that adding a star for each new state was authorized. Some added extra stripes as well. Congress saw this and did nothing for 24 years, 1794 through 1820.


The 3rd flag act gave us a fixed policy: one new star for each new state, but only 13 stripes. This fixed the future... but said nothing about the existing flags with 16 to 19 stars.


Louisiana's 18 star, 18 stripe flag reportedly flew over the U.S. Capital for some time in 1817 and 1818.

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New York Times October 26, 2008


Flag From 1814 Stonington Battle, Now Residing in Storage Room 


By JOE WOJTAS


AN American flag that flew over Stonington, Connecticut during an 1814 British naval attack and is believed to be older than the Star-Spangled Banner is being placed in storage because there is not enough money to restore it.


The woolen flag, with its 16 stars and stripes, flew for three days as the British fired cannonballs into the town, setting homes on fire. It survived the battle, and, for the last half century or so, was displayed in a glass case at a local bank. In 2004, the flag’s owner, the Stonington Historical Society, removed it because a combination of light, dirt, furnace fumes and temperature variations was hastening its deterioration.


A study by University of Rhode Island textile experts determined that the work needed to restore the flag would be similar to a recent project to restore the larger, and better known, Star-Spangled Banner.


The Battle of Stonington occurred a month before Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that became the national anthem after seeing an enormous American flag flying over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry after a 25-hour bombardment by British forces.


The six-year restoration of that flag, which cost $18 million and was financed by donations, was completed in 2005. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is designing a new gallery to display the flag.


In Stonington, officials of the historical society said it would cost at least several million dollars to restore their flag, money the small group does not have. Its former president, James Boylan, said the society had not undertaken the effort to raise the money because of other priorities.


So last weekend, a group of volunteers painstakingly unfolded, dusted, vacuumed and rolled the 18-by-11-foot flag onto a long tube, its layers separated by sheets of laundered muslin, a finely woven cotton fabric. It was then placed in a climate-controlled room. No one knows when it will next be seen.

C.M. Glover for The New York Times

“For many of us, getting to work on something like this is a lifetime opportunity,” said Martha Geehan, the society’s curator of textiles. “Once it’s rolled up, though, we’re not sure when it will ever be unrolled again.”


The society believes that a sewing circle at the local Congregational church made the wool flag between 1796 and 1803, which would make it older than the Star-Spangled Banner, which dates to 1813.


“To think that this was made by women in Stonington really makes it special. It’s a common person’s object,” said Scotty Breed, the society’s assistant librarian.


The women of the sewing circle added a 16th star and stripe to the Stonington flag to commemorate Tennessee’s admission into the Union in 1796. All the stars were created freehand on the blue background in four rows of four. The blue field and red stripes are still vibrant, but the fibers are eroded in sections, and the white stripes are now tan.


When the society’s president tried to lift the flag out of a drawer in 1948, it almost fell apart. So the group decided to restore it. It sent the flag to a woman in Brooklyn, N.Y., who 35 years earlier, with her mother, had attached a heavy linen backing to the Star-Spangled Banner.


The woman, Katherine Fowler Richey, did the same to Stonington’s battle flag, along with cutting out the white stars so the new linen showed through. She used hundreds of thousands of stitches to attach the flag to the backing, all of which would now have to be removed to restore it.


In 1953, the flag was hung in the Ocean Bank, which overlooks the small park where the large cannons used to defend the town are still on display.


“A lot of people asked us if we could leave it up in the bank, but it wouldn’t have been responsible to do that,” said the society’s curator, Mary Beth Baker.


The Rhode Island study concluded that removing the backing and cleaning the flag would reveal its bright colors. It could then be displayed on a flat cushioned surface in a room with controlled temperature, humidity and light.


Susan Jerome, the manager of the university’s historical textiles collection, said the flag is not strong enough to hang by itself. “But it’s a wonderful object as it is,” she said, “and it can still teach us so much.”