Betsy Ross (Sewn)

The Betsy Ross flag is an early design of American flag popularly attributed to Betsy Ross using the common motifs of alternating red-and-white striped field with white stars in a blue canton. The flag was designed during the American Revolution and features 13 stars to represent the original 13 colonies. The distinctive feature of the Ross flag is the arrangement the 5-pointed stars in a circle.

Although most flag historians do not believe Betsy Ross to be the maker of the first American flag, the Betsy Ross story has become publicized and common, accepted by many Americans. According to the legend, the original Betsy Ross flag was made in 1776, when a small committee including George Washington and George Ross, a relative, visited Betsy and discussed the need for a new American flag. Betsy's contribution to the design was a 5-pointed star (instead of a 6-pointed star, as Francis Hopkinson used), and she accepted the job to sew the first.

An important distinction must be made between the Betsy Ross legend of the flag's origin, and the actual historicity of the design. The flag was in use by 1777. Alfred B. Street described it at the surrender of General Burgoyne and understood the circle of stars to represent equality among the American states.^[1] It is the oldest version of any U.S. flag known to exist; while it is not the oldest surviving flag artifact in cloth form, its likeness appears on older physical relics, namely, the contemporary battlefield paintings by John Trumbull and Charles Willson Peale. They depict the circular star arrangement being flown from ship masts and many other places, and thus provide the first know historical documentation on the flag's appearance.

The seal of the U.S. Veterans Administration uses the Betsy Ross flag to represent service to all veterans from the American Revolution to the present day.

On 14 June 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution, establishing the first congressional standard for official United States flags. The shape and arrangement of the stars is not mentioned (there were variations), but the legal description gives the Ross flag legitimacy.

Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.

The Betsy Ross design of 13-star US flags has been featured in many popular artworks, (sometimes inaccurately, as in Washington Crossing The Delaware. The flag continues to be one of the most popular symbols of the American Revolution.