Last modified: 2020-06-03 by rob raeside
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image by
António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 May 2016
Official Name: United States Virgin Islands
Previous name: Danish West
Indies
Capital: Charlotte Amalie
Location: Caribbean
Government Type: Organized, Unincorporated
Territory of the US
Flag adopted: 17
May 1921
ISO Code: VI
See also:
The flag of the US Virgin Island shows a bird in a pose
similar to that on the US presidential flag or state arms.
However, its colouring is not that of a bald eagle, and it looks
much more benign. What is this bird?
Rob Raeside, 17 January 2000
It is a bald eagle. The flag of the Virgin Islands uses a
simplified version of the US coat of arms. National Geographic
Magazine, September 1934 attributes the flag as being that of the
Governor of the Virgin Islands, adopted by executive order of the
President. DK goes into more detail: adopted in 1921, the three
arrows represent the three main islands.
Phil Nelson, 17 January 2000
OK, it is supposed to be a bald eagle, since it was based on
the US arms. But, what does distinguish a (heraldic) bald eagle?
Only the white head, and nothing more. Yet this USVI eagle is all
golden, just like, say, the Russian or Egyptian eagles... And
that's weird, as even American Samoa shows a proper colored bald
eagle (not to mention Illinois, Utah,
Iowa or New York...).
António Martins, 20 January 2000
The official
website of the government of the Virgin Islands states:
The flag of the United States Virgin Islands was adopted by
Executive Order on May 17,1921. Upon a white field between, the
letters V I, an American Eagle in yellow is displayed with the
shield of the United States on its breast. A sprig of laurel is
in its dexter talon, while a bundle of three blue arrows are in
its sinister talon. The letters V I and the three arrows are in
azure blue and the blue of the shield is the blue of the arms and
flag of the United States.
Phil Nelson, 7 February 2000
From
www.virginislandsdailynews.com:
Recently Blanche Sasso from the US Virgin Islands could celebrate
her 105th birthday. "In 1921 she embroidered the first U.S.
Virgin Islands flag with her sister, Grace Sparks. The flag
design was done by Sparks' husband", as the news report
states.
Martin Karner, 19 September 2004
There really is little (if any) doubt that that the USVI flag
shows a simplified version of the US national emblem, and that
Admiral Kettelle so designed it in 1921.
Leaving aside any consideration of the two practically identical
shields, the US emblem shows a bald eagle in its proper colours
with outspread wings, and whilst it is arguable whether those
wings are heraldically "displayed" as per the official
blazon or "volant", those of the VI show a very similar
attitude, with the bird (howsoever simplified in rendition)
having an eagle's beak and clutching in its talons both a bunch
of arrows and a branch in the same way as in the US..
Christopher Southworth, 25 September 2008
I cropped to standard size and recolored this flag image using (approximations
of) the colors repored in [loc12] (where «PMS
179 orange» is what what on this flag is conceptually red - the vertical stripes).
António Martins-Tuválkin, 15 May 2016
The protocol manual for the
London 2012 Olympics
(Flags and Anthems Manual
London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations
for national flag designs. Each
NOC
was sent an image of the flag, including the
PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced
a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may
not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what
the NOC
believed the flag to be.
For US Virgin Islands: PMS 102 yellow, 292 blue, 281 blue, 179 orange, 355 green
and black. The vertical flag is simply the horizontal version turned 90 degrees
clockwise.
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012
There are three islands in Virgin Islands. According to Administrative
divisions of the World the island are divided to sub districts
as follows:
Saint Croix: Anna's Hope Village, Christiansted,
East End, Frederiksted, Northcentral, Northwest, Sion Farm,
Southcentral, Southwest.
Saint John: Central, Coral Bay, Cruz Bay, East
End.
Saint Thomas: Charlotte Amalie, East End,
Northside, Southside, Tutu, Water Island, West End.
There is no information about any flags used by those
subdivisions.
Dov Gutterman, 3 August 2004
Probably won't happen, but if it does, a new flag would
result.....
From Associated Press: "At least 5,500 residents of
St. Croix, the largest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, have signed a
petition asking Congress to make the island its own U.S.
territory. Supporters say seceding from the rest of the Virgin
Islands would bring the island more U.S. funds. St. Croix is
poorer than the two other main islands of St. Thomas and St.
John. Volunteers, who are still collecting signatures,
plan to give the petition to Congress in the near future, said
Rena Brodhurst, president of the Committee for St. Croix's
Self-Government. But some admit they are not optimistic about its
chances for success. Only about 20 percent of St. Croix's
27,000 registered voters have signed, and reorganizing the
territorial government would take major legislative changes.
Still, the petition will draw attention to St. Croix's
economic needs, said Donna M. Christensen, the U.S. Caribbean
territory's nonvoting representative in Congress and a St. Croix
native. "I believe in the principle that St. Croix
needs more attention ... Their position is a bit extreme, but I
signed it just to draw some attention," she said.
Though St. Croix is home to the Western Hemisphere's second
largest oil refinery and the Cruzan Rum distillery, unemployment
is at about 13 percent compared to 9 percent on the other two
islands. St. Croix residents voted four of their seven
territorial senators out of office in elections on Nov. 2. Many
residents complained they were poorly represented and received
less than their share of government money. Terrance
Nelson, elected to the Senate this year from St. Croix, said the
island needed more help, but he didn't sign the petition.
He said changing in the local government structure would be a
better way to get more funding. Nelson said it was unfair
that St. Thomas and St. John elected eight of the 15 senators,
leaving seven to St. Croix. Home to 110,000 people, the
Caribbean islands have been a U.S. territory since the American
government purchased them from Denmark in 1917."
David C. Fowler, 15 November 2004
Oddly enough, I have just seen this ensign today too... but on Chrystian
Kretowicz galleries on Facebook, on his picture about Water Island (US Virgin
islands). Chrystian tells us that: Water island was the last island to become
part of the territory : having been sold to the Danish East Asiatic Company (Østasiatiske
Kompagni) in 1905, it was not part of the 1917 sale to the US to the
Danish West
Indies. It was sold to the USA in 1944 and was trasnferred frome federal
government to the US Virgin islands in 1996.
Chrystian displays for
Facebook
members
this flag, as the flag of Det Østasiatiske Kompagni.
More on this here :
Water Island and here (with
the flag): East Asiatic Company.
It can be seen too on
FotW, where you can see the
company houseflag.
The described ensign, which is the
flag reported by Elias,
can be seen (drawn by Željko Heimer)
here, but not exactly as
described since the company house flag in the canton is not displayed as "flying
from a pole which is angled bendwise".
Olivier Touzeau, 5 January 2011
University of Virgin Islands at Brewer's Bay near Charlotte
Amalie was established in 1986 (originally founded in 1963 as a
College of Virgin Islands).
In October last year there was a vote to select the flag of UVI
out of 14 submitted designs. I couldn't find any info on which
design was finally chosen.
Source: www.uvi.edu.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 15 July 2008
Here is the story from www.uvi.edu,
dated 5th November 2007: "In other action at the UVI Board
of Trustees meeting, the winning design for a new UVI flag was
presented and ratified. The design [...] was selected from 14
presented to the UVI community for voting. A total of 257 votes
were cast. The top vote getters were Image 1 - with 57 votes,
Image 8 - with 51 votes, Image 2 - with 40 votes, and Image 12 -
with 38 votes."
Valentin Poposki, 19 October 2008