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  13 STAR FLAG MADE BY SARAH M. WILSON, THE GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF BETSY ROSS, 1909, PHILADELPHIA

Available: Sold
Frame Size (H x L): 10.25" x 14.25"
Flag Size (H x L): 4.25" x 8.5"
Description....:
13 STAR FLAG MADE BY SARAH M. WILSON, THE GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF BETSY ROSS, 1909, PHILADELPHIA:

13 star American national flag, made by the great-granddaughter of Betsy Ross, Sarah M. Wilson. Sarah participated in a cottage industry with Rachel Albright, Betsy's Granddaughter, making little flags for tourists in the East Wing of Independence H-all, Philadelphia. The two women began sometime during the last five years of the 19th century and worked through the first ten or twelve years of the 20th century. They either sold the flags outright or gifted them to persons who financially supported the American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial Association.

Each flag made by Wilson and Albright came with either a signature along the hoist (sleeve) or a signed note. Unfortunately, not many examples are directly signed and the notes are usually missing. The text on the obverse of this flag reads:

Made by Sarah M. Wilson,
Great granddaughter of Betsy Ross.

And continues on the reverse:

In the East Wing of Independence Hall,
Philadelphia, 1909

The stripes of the flag are constructed of silk ribbon that is hand-sewn with the kind of remarkable precision seen in the best early needlework examples. The five pointed, wheel-spoke stars are embroidered in silk floss on a blue silk canton, and there is a hand-sewn cotton sleeve along the hoist end. The Albright and Wilson flags are extremely easy to identify because their construction is so distinctive. There is nothing else like them made during this period. They tend to be very much alike, but sometimes there are minor variations from one to the next.

Rachael and Sarah proudly proclaimed that this is what the original flag looked like, but no hard evidence exists to substantiate it. In fact, no one knows precisely what the star configuration was on the first flag, but it is unlikely that it had a perfect circle of stars. Of the very few Colonial examples that still exist, none have survived with this pattern. Further, while there are thousands of 13 star flags that still exist today, made during the 19th and 20th centuries for all manner of patriotic purpose, none seem to have survived with the Betsy Ross, perfect circle pattern that date prior to the 1890's. So these little flags are probably among the first to be made in this design, despite the fact that it is now so popularly connected with the name Betsy Ross.

One of these small flags appears on the Betsy Ross House website:
http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/house/room9. html. A signed example is picture in "The Stars and the Stripes" by Mastai, 1973, p. 228. Albright and Wilson appear to have stopped making flags of this kind sometime around 1912.

Mounting: The flag has been pressure-mounted between100% cotton velvet and u.v. protective plexiglas. The velvet has been washed to reduce excess dye. An acid-free agent was added to the wash to further set the dye and the fabric was heat-treated for the same purpose. The gilded molding dates to the period between 1830 and 1860.

Condition: There are two areas along the top red stripe where the flag had been glue to a piece of glass in a previous framing process. Tiny pieces of silk were placed behind these areas to mask fabric loss and keep the silk intact. There are also minor splits in the silk fabric and moderate fading in the blue canton. The overall condition is excellent for one of these examples, however, which are very important among surviving early flags because of their historical significance, tiny size, and hand-stitching.
Collector Level: Advanced Collectors and the Person with Everything
Flag Type: Sewn flag
Star Count: 13
Earliest Date of Origin: 1909
Latest Date of Origin: 1909
State/Affiliation: Pennsylvania
War Association:
Price: Sold
 

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