Celebrating the Red, White, and Blue | Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson established June 14 as Flag Day, to commemorate the 1777 adoption of the “Stars and Stripes” as the national flag of the United States. Flag Day had been celebrated unofficially prior to 1916, as you can see in the first photo below. I recently gathered images from the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division for inclusion in a Flickr album featuring flags, which inspired me to expand my search and mark the occasion of Flag Day.

The images shown here are all retrieved in a search in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) using the search term “flag day.” The first two photos date to earlier Flag Day celebrations:

Post Ofc. Dept. Flag day. Photo by National Photo Company, ca. 1913. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.31435

FLAG DAY. GENERAL VIEW OF EXERCISES, SYLVAN THEATRE. Photo by Harris & Ewing, 1919. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hec.12264

The next images date from the World War II era:

Oswego, New York. United nations heroes in the Flag Day parade during United Nations week. Photo by Marjory Collins, 1943 June. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d30922

Flag Day. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photo by John Vachon, 1941 June. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c19359

I will end with a Work Projects Administration (WPA) poster that celebrates both the Elmhurst, Illinois Flag Day festivities and the DuPage County Centennial of 1939:

Elmhurst flag day, June 18, 1939, Du Page County centennial. Poster by Beauparlant, 1939. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f05214

Learn More:

See the Flickr album full of images related to the American flag, “Stars and Stripes.”
Read other Picture This blogs on the subject of the U.S. flag:
- Formation Photographs: Lining up to Salute the Flag
- F eaturing our Flag
Explore the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog to see images of flags of all kinds.

3 Comments

Kris Cowling
June 14, 2022 at 9:55 am
I absolutely love the 1939 poster. What a gorgeous design! Thanks for sharing the very nice selection of photos.
Amelia Nicol
June 15, 2022 at 2:03 pm
So beautiful, I love these photographs.
Barbara
June 29, 2022 at 5:55 pm
Great selections! And the Flickr set shows such an impressive array of ways to form a flag.

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