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Toledo, Ohio (U.S.)

Lucas County

image by David Sigley, 11 January 2025

Current Flag
Seal
Second flag
First flag
Police Department
Fire Department
Toledo/Lucas County Port Authority

See also:

Current Flag

The city selected a new flag from a number of finalists on Tuesday.
https://www.13abc.com/2025/01/08/city-toledo-adopts-new-flag/

City of Toledo Unveils a New Flag for Toledo's 188th Birthday

https://toledo.oh.gov/news/2025/01/08/city-of-toledo-unveils-a-new-flag-for-toledos-188th-birthday
The winning design, created by Toledo resident and designer Mark Yappueying, reimagines elements from the city seal, including a modernized blockhouse representing Toledo’s historical roots and industrial strength. Two blue bands symbolize the Maumee River, and a red starburst rises over the horizon, marking the city's geographical position. The flag's color palette—dark blue, light blue, white, and red—reflects Toledo’s rich history, natural resources, and indomitable spirit.

“This flag is an evolution of our past flags, connecting our past to our present and future," said Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz. "As we raise our new flag, we celebrate all that Toledo is today and all we hope it will be in the future."

The flag design contest, spearheaded by The Arts Commission, included contributions from a Design Review Board (DRB) composed of local leaders, artists, and community members. The process began with an open call for submissions, resulting in 68 designs. Public input played a significant role, with feedback gathered both online and in person. In addition to the winning design, two runners-up were also selected by the DRB, Jacob Parr and Jillian Hupp.

About the ArtistMark Yappueying, a University of Toledo alumnus, is a designer renowned for crafting thoughtful design solutions for cultural institutions. His work is characterized by curiosity, craftsmanship, and a commitment to creating meaningful connections through visual storytelling. Yappueying’s design for Toledo’s new flag honors the city’s past while inspiring hope for its future.

Background on the CompetitionThe Toledo City Flag Design Competition invited residents to contribute to reimagining the city’s visual identity. Submissions were evaluated anonymously based on principles of good flag design, including simplicity, meaningful symbolism, and enduring appeal.

Additional article with specifications: https://toledo.oh.gov/flag

About the Design

https://toledo.oh.gov/flag
The new flag for the City of Toledo stands as a compelling symbol of unity, heritage, and progress. Central to the design is a modernized blockhouse, representing Toledo's historical roots and industrial strength. Historically a symbol of a fortress, this modernized version now embodies the cityʼs trajectory from challenging pasts into a new era. It showcases Fort Industry, a structured "T" for Toledo, a leaf form that nurtures and celebrates the city's natural environment, and the iconic Veteranʼs Skyway Bridge at the top. Its angled silhouette, inspired by a flint arrowhead, honors the ancestral homelands of Indigenous tribes.

The four elongated points of the sunburst in the top left represent cardinal directions and honor Native American traditions of the medicine wheel, as well as Toledoʼs geographical position as a vital crossroads in America. Reinterpreted from the cityʼs seal, the sunburst is positioned in the Northwest quadrant of the flag, rising on the horizon and connecting with the Skyway Bridge. Placed above horizontal blue bands symbolizing the Maumee River and the tributaries of the region's watershed, the sunburst also landmarks city center.

The flagʼs color palette harmonizes and embodies cultural connections for all Toledoans. Dark blue envelopes the flag, inviting openness, ingenuity, and reflecting the cityʼs legacy as a global innovator. It also echoes the colors of the historical University of Toledo, past Toledo flags, and the Ohio state flag. Light blue signifies the cityʼs water resources, vibrant cultural roots, and stability. A prominent white band symbolizes the unification of all Toledoans and embodies perseverance. Rising and glowing, red represents Toledoʼs indomitable spirit.

This flag is more than a symbol; it is a visual testament to Toledoʼs rich history, diverse culture, and a beacon for its bright future. By reimagining the blockhouse, it opens the door to a new, prosperous chapter unique to Toledo. This design unites the cityʼs population, honors its heritage, and inspires hope for generations to come. It captures the ethos and vigor that define Toledo, ensuring its story continues to thrive.
Dave Fowler, 8 January 2025

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 9 November 2019

Source: https://toledo.oh.gov
Paul Bassinson, 9 November 2019

Second flag

3:5 image(s) by permission of David B. Martucci
image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright.

Text and image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) from American City Flags by permission of David B. Martucci.

Design

Toledo's flag is a vertical tribar of equal medium blue, white, and medium blue stripes, with the city's seal in the center. The seal, nearly as wide as the center stripe, is encircled by a white ring edged in black. Arched over the top half is • SEAL • OF • THE • CITY • OF • TOLEDO • and in the lower half, counterclockwise, JANUARY • 7 • 1837, all in black. A silhouette of old Fort Industry at sunrise, in brown, appears in the center fly portion of the seal. A small United States flag in full color flies overhead, though little more than a suggestion of the blue and red. The fort is perched on a green grassy plain over a chalky white bluff detailed in black. Below the bluff and toward the hoist is the Maumee River, which the rising sun has tinted yellow with brownish waves. The orange sun, its top half visible, is aligned with the fort horizontally. Orange rays in varying sizes form a hemisphere over the sun, and the sky is also yellow with brownish tints. Arched immediately below the inner circle of the outer ring, and in black letters about two-thirds the size of those on the ring, is the city's Latin motto, • LABORARE • EST • ORARE • ("To work is to pray").
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Symbolism

Fort Industry was the first building, constructed around 1800, in what would later become the city of Toledo, at the junction of Swan Creek and the Maumee River. The rising sun, prominent on the state seal, symbolizes Ohio.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Selection

Mayor Carleton S. Finkbeiner and city council adopted a "modification" of the city's official flag in 1994 in preparation for a celebration of the city's 160th anniversary in 1997 by placing the city's first engraved seal on the flag. (This seal was adopted in 1873; before that a kind of generic seal with a scroll on which "L. S."—for the Latin Locus Sigilli, or "Place of the Seal"—was used.) In effect, however, it is a new flag.
Adopted: 18 January 1994 (official).
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Designer

Presumably Mayor Finkbeiner, who thought that a return to the old seal was appropriate. The designer of the 1873 seal was an engraver, O. J. Hopkins.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

More about the Flag

Because of the seal's many colors, Toledo's current flag is considerably more costly to manufacture than the previous flag, so it is not flown as widely about the city as was its predecessor.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

First flag

image(s) by permission of David B. Martucci
image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright.

Info from www.toledolibrary.org/tprofile/appendix_from_toledo_profiles.htm#The%20City%20Flag%20and%20Seal

The City Flag and Seal
Toledo officially adopted the design for the city flag on January 11, 1909, during the administration of Mayor Brand Whitlock. City council's resolution explained the meaning of the flag's design.

"The significance of the design is as follows: the block house representing old Fort Industry, which was the first settlement of Toledo, represents security and industry and that advancement which came of the pioneer spirit. The circle surrounding it denotes unity, completeness and eternity, and giving the sense of location, represents the state of Ohio. The colors of the flag are the national colors and stand not only for the nation, but the blue for constancy, the white for purity and the red for labor, courage and brotherhood.

"Be it further resolved that the device of the block house within the circle stand as the emblem of the City of Toledo and be the basis of all seals and devices representing the sovereignty of the city; with this addition, however, that where possible the date of the organization of the city, 1837, be added and the motto of the city, Laborare est Orare.

"Be it further resolved that the thanks of the city be extended to Robert M. Corl for the design which he has furnished."

Toledo's incorporation as a city in 1837 included the right to use a corporate seal. The city's first seal was a scroll with the letters L.S., the abbreviation for the Latin Locus Sigilli, meaning "the place of the seal." Officials probably used this seal until 1852, when the municipal corporation act made Toledo a second class city. No record shows what seal the city adopted in 1852. The circle and the inscription "The Seal of the City of Toledo" originated with a state law passed in 1868. The old Fort Industry, the date of the incorporation of the city, and the city's motto appeared on a seal designed in 1873. The Latin motto, "Laborare est Orare," freely translated, means "To work is to pray." The present seal, designed by Robert M. Corl, incorporates all these elements. Toledo adopted the seal along with the city flag on January 11, 1909.
Dov Gutterman, 23 December 2002

Former flag image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 31 May 2008		Detail of flag image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 31 May 2008

The flag shown on Wikipedia for Toledo was never the official flag. The design of the official flag from 1909 to 1994 is similar, but does not have any words on the blue ring around the red blockhouse. The article in Flagwaver by Kevin Harrington (Issue 3, June, 1997) is correct. The current flag has the more elaborate seal, actually the city's first seal. The mayor and city council in 1994 decided to return to the old seal in preparation for the city's 160th anniversary celebration in 1997.
John Purcell, 31 May 2008

Police Department

image by Randy Young, 28 February 2016

The Toledo Police Department is the primary agency responsible for enforcing laws and maintaining order in the city of Toledo.

The flag of the Toledo Police Department can be seen here. The photograph shows the Department's honor guard carrying the Ohio flag, the Toledo city flag, and the police department flag (far right). The Department's flag features the Toledo city seal centered on a blue field, with the words "TOLEDO POLICE" above and the word "DEPARTMENT" below in gold capital letters.

Randy Young, 20 February 2016

Fire Department

image by Ethan Dubrow, 15 July 2024
based on photo

The flag for the Toledo, Ohio, Fire Department consists of a variant of the department logo on a black background.
Source https://www.toledofirerescue.com/assets/HG.jpg
Ethan Dubrow, 15 July 2024

Toledo/Lucas County Port Authority

image by Randy Young, 2 March 2021

Toledo/Lucas County Port Authority is a special district within Ohio. Its flag is white with the logo centered.
Valentin Poposki, 1 March 2021