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Whipple American History Flag 1917 (U.S.)

Also known as Whipple Peace Flag

image by Pete Loeser, 9 May 2025

On this Page:

Introduction: Whipple American History Flag 1917
Whipple Peace Flag

See also:

Introduction: Whipple American History Flag 1917

In 1910, Wayne Whipple, a well-known author of popular books on American history, proposed a meaningful design for the star pattern of the flag. His idea was that the central 13 stars should represent the original states as on the great seal, then to surround them with a ring of 25 stars representing the states that joined the Union in the first 100 years, and then finally have a ring of ten stars representing the states that joined in the second hundred years. He called his design a "History" flag. He then challenged students who read his book to come up with their ideas for a meaningful star arrangement.
Interestingly enough Whipple entered his flag design into a Peace Flag contest just before the beginning of World War I, it didn't win, but later it was marketed by the Dettra Flag Company as the "Whipple Peace Flag" to celebrate the end of World War I in 1918. So the Whipple "American History" Flag became the Whipple "Peace" Flag.
Source: Many Constellations of Old Glory
Pete Loeser, 26 February 2020

Whipple Peace Flag

image located by William Garrison, 15 May 2025

Spotted on this on the Jeff R. Bridgman Antiques website and this caption: "A U.S. 48-star 'Whipple Peace flag.' The 'Peace Flag,' conceived by Wayne Whipple of Germantown, Pennsylvania. His visionary design featured a deeply symbolic configuration: thirteen stars representing the original colonies formed a central six-pointed star; encircling them were twenty-five stars denoting the states admitted during the nation's first century; the outermost ring comprised ten stars, honoring those welcomed into the Union after 1876. Whipple also glorified the design in a book he released called 'The Story of the American Flag' (1910, Henry Altemus Company, Philadelphia). He even went so far as to distribute small parade flag/hand-waver versions in pursuit of his goal to be the first person to design the official star pattern for the American flag Printed on cotton or silk, he took these to rallies and mailed them to influential parties."
William Garrison, 15 May 2025

I presented an in-depth article about Wayne Whipple and his flags to a NAVA meeting back in 2012, which was published in Raven Vol. 22, 2015.
Dave Martucci, 16 May 2025

This is listed in our FotW-ws Biliography as [mtc15] and on the NAVA website you can find the electronic copy of the whole [Raven Vol. 22, 2012].
Wayne Whipple's own book is also listed in our Biliography, as [wwy19].
António MARTINS-Tuválkin, 18 May 2025

Please try [Wayne's World of Flags] to link directly to Dave's RAVEN PDF article. This url is given in the NAVA I mentioned on Sunday, 18 May 2025.
António MARTINS-Tuválkin, 19 May 2025