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Portsmouth, Ohio (U.S.)

Scioto County

image by Jens Pattke, 17 August 2015

Description of the flag
Former flags
Seal

See also:

Description of the flag

According to portsmouth-dailytimes.com/news/1510/council-adopts-new-city-flag, the city of Portsmouth has adopted a new flag:

Council adopts new city flag
By Frank Lewis

As a natural follow-up to the recent adoption of a new city seal, the city of Portsmouth has adopted a new city flag.

"This is what we asked for," First Ward Councilman Kevin W. Johnson said. "The 'Portsmouth, Ohio' is more in bold. It comes across better. It comes further out into the blue. It's a more distinctive feature on there. I think this is dang sharp."

Gina Chabot, of the city's Bicentennial Committee, made the presentation of the new design to City Council Monday night and gained instant approval from the Council members. She later told the Daily Times the scenario behind the creation of the flag.

"(Second Ward Councilman) Rich Saddler was the inspiration," Chabot said. "Michael Vermillion and myself collaborated."

The design appeared to be well thought out.

"The concept was to create a new flag complementary to the new seal," Chabot said. "We first used the whole seal, but it was crowded. Later the idea struck to remove the outer ring and let the rope 'O' be our O, representing the River. The rope has been used for River Days and all of that for years."

Highlights include the U.S. Grant Bridge looking up to Portsmouth and stars and stripes with lush trees and the Ohio River in the background.

"The flag with the seal without the outer ring, makes the letters for Portsmouth, Ohio become the 'stars', with the indication of our Stars on the flood wall," Chabot said. "The two stars represent the original Alexandria, Ohio, and the move to higher ground in Portsmouth. This is a move that the Shawnee Indians had made centuries earlier as well." Chabot went on to explain that the bridge is the connection between communities but also the bridge to the future as well as the past. The rope and the round shape is in honor of the city's "Beautiful Rivers" (again the two stars), and River Days, and how the city's focus for the future can be enhanced by the river. It didn't take long for Johnson to make a motion for adoption, and the vote was 4-0 with only four members present for the meeting.

Dave Fowler, 16 August 2015

About the city:
"Portsmouth is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Scioto County. The municipality is located on the northern banks of the Ohio River and east of the Scioto River in Southern Ohio. The population was 20,909 at the 2000 census." - from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth,_Ohio.

Official website: portsmouthoh.org
Valentin Poposki, 23 January 2010

Former flags

image by Randy Young, 19 August 2015

The previous flag of the City of Portsmouth, Ohio, is of vertical design. It shows three irregular fields of blue (on the top), green in the shape of the state (in the middle) and white (on the bottom). On the green field lies inscription "PORTSMOUTH/OHIO/1803" all in white letters and below that a seven-pointed white star with green circle bordered white than black. It can be seen on a photo on Waymarking website: www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=6f4a8707-40d7-4e6f-917e-c1eccbbe19be.
Valentin Poposki, 23 January 2010

located by Valentin Poposki, 29 August 2005
reduced from an image at imagebase.lib.vt.edu/browse.php?folio_ID=/trans/nss/ohio/ohi&num_rows=27&start_row=6

This black and white image of the flag shows an image of a local rural scene, with a woodsman to the left and a native to the right on a white field. On a colored ribbon above is written PORTSMOUTH, O, and below CITY FLAG.
Valentin Poposki, 29 August 2005

The flag shown here for Portsmouth is one that has not been used in more than 40 years, at least. Portsmouth has had two flags since.
John Purcell, 30 July 2006

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 9 November 2019

Source: https://d31029zd06w0t6.cloudfront.net/
Paul Bassinson, 9 November 2019