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  18 STAR ANTIQUE AMERICAN FLAG WITH 13 STRIPES, LIKELY MADE TO COMMEMORATE THE 1812 ADMISSION OF LOUISIANA AS THE 18TH STATE, AND PRODUCED EITHER FOR THE 1893 CHICAGO WORLD’S FAIR, OR THE 1876 PHILADELPHIA WORLD’S FAIR, ATTRIBUTED TO LEADING, CIVIL WAR, U.S. ARMY ENGINEER & CHICAGO ARCHITECT, WILLIAM LeBARON JENNEY

Available: Sold
Frame Size (H x L): 35.25" x 46.25"
Flag Size (H x L): 24" x 35.25"
Description....:
18-star, 13-stripe, American national flag, made sometime in the period between 1876 and the 1890's to commemorate the admission of Louisiana as the 18th state. Among surviving flags, 18 is one of the rarest counts. Just one example is known to exist from the four-year period in which there were 18 states (1812-1816) and only a small handful of others survive that date to the second half of the 19th century.

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson oversaw the Louisiana purchase, an acquisition of more than 800,000 square miles of land from France. This would eventually encompass all or a portion of 15 future states and 2 Canadian provinces. This included New Orleans, which at the time had a population of about 10,000 and ranked among the U.S.'s 10 largest cities.

Louisiana became a state unto itself on April 30th, 1812, representing approximately 50,000 square miles of the original tract. At the time the national flag officially had 15 stars and 15 stripes, subject to the Second Flag Act, which passed on January 13th, 1794 and took effect on May 1st, 1795.

The flag did not officially change again until the Third Flag Act was passed on April 3rd of 1818, following the addition of 5 more states. This took the official count from 15 stars to 20 and reduced the stripe count to 13. Official is the operative word, because the makers of flags, both at home and in commercial settings, took great liberty with flag design throughout the 19th century. Most added a star as soon as a new state came in. In fact, in the case of certain states, evidence clearly shows that they did so months or sometimes even years beforehand. This was especially true between the Civil War (1861-65) and the first decade of the 20th century.

During the period between 1792 and 1818, stripes were generally added along with stars. During congressional discussions in 1817, a speaker pointed out that there was a flag with 18 stars and 18 stripes flying over the Washington Navy Yard, while another with 7 stripes was flying over the U.S. Capitol. The reason for 7 stripes is not known, but odd irregularities of this sort are sometimes present among the earliest examples. Most illustrations of flags with 16- 19 stars, done in or very close to the period when we had the corresponding number of states, show a complement of an equivalent number of stripes.

Today just one 18-star, 18-stripe flag survives in the collection of the Louisiana State Museum. The flag is said to have been sewn for Colonel Philip Hickey, an officer in the War of 1812, a wealthy plantation owner and future Louisiana senator. The flag was made from silk dresses by the ladies of Hope Estate, one of his large plantations. Hickey desired a flag with 18 stars and 18 stripes to be present on the day of Louisiana's acceptance, to be displayed in patriotic celebration. It is said that he had ordered one from a commercial source, possibly the Washington Navy Yard, but was afraid that it would not arrive in time.

A very small number of 18 star flags do exist that were instead made later, during the mid-19th century and beyond. Some of these examples are thought to have been produced to commemorate Louisiana statehood, while others may have actually been made to remove Louisiana, as well as the other 14 Slave States, from the total number of states at the time. Yet another possibility is to portray the number of states during the time of the war of 1812 (1812-1815). In any of the above instances, one of the most probable, recognizable differences would be the presence of 13 stripes instead of 18. In an exclusionary flag, 13 stripes would be the appropriate and expected count. In a flag meant to commemorate the 1812-1816 period or Louisiana statehood, it should theoretically be expected to have 18 stripes. By the mid-late 19th century, however, flag-makers seeking to produce such a flag, at least as evidenced by surviving examples, seem to have typically forgotten that the concept had once been to add a stripe with every star.

This particular 18-star, 13-stripe flag was commercially produced by a professional flag-maker during the 1876 – 1890’s era. The canton and stripes are made of wool bunting, pieced and joined by treadle stitching. The stars are made of cotton and are double-appliquéd (applied to both sides) with a lineal, treadle stitch. Though they each basically have one arm directed upward, congruent with the modern concept of star orientation, note the rather inconsistent and visually intriguing shapes of the stars themselves, reminiscent of starfish, with arched valleys between the arms. There is a twill cotton binding along the hoist, applied in the same fashion, with two brass grommets. Along this, on the obverse, “3 x 2” was stenciled in black to denote the size in feet. Part way down, also on the obverse, the abbreviation “Phil.” was inscribed with a dip pen, in a 19th century hand, probably as an abbreviation for “Philadelphia.” Note the unusual justification of the period, in the center of the line after the letter “L” as opposed to along the bottom. This is a 19th century trait. A linen or cotton cleaner’s tag is hand-stitched to the binding, adjacent to the upper grommet, on which the name “Elizabeth Jenney.” is stamped or printed in black. Note the period that follows her surname, the use of which is likewise 19th century.

While the manner in which the stars are appliquéd can be encountered as early as the Civil War, lineal, machine-sewn stars are especially rare at that time. They appear a bit more frequently immediately post-war, with another slight bump occurring in the 1876 centennial era, but are most prevalent in flags made between roughly 1890-1895. This narrow, five-year window represents a significant, transitional period, during which electric sewing machines began to enter the flag-making industry in large numbers. This made the application of stars far easier. Simultaneously occurring with this change was the adoption of the zigzag stitch for the task of appliquéing stars. This eliminated the need to turn the edges of the fabric under as the stars were sewn. This revolutionized flag production, almost instantly becoming the primary method and remaining so until after World War II (U.S. involvement 1941-1944). To say this more concisely, until 1890 stars were typically hand sewn. Afterwards they're typically machine sewn, and by 1896 the lineal machine stitch had been replaced by the zigzag stitch.

During the last quarter of the 19th century through the first quarter or so of the 20th, the most compelling reason to make an American flag, with a number of stars less than the current star count, was to commemorate a time and/or the addition of a particular state. While one might conceive of making such a thing for the 100th anniversary of the settlement of a town, for example, or its incorporation, a more likely reason would be for use at a World’s Fair, which began and soon reached their stride in America, during this period. The first of these was held in Philadelphia’s Fairmont Park, the 3,100 acre plot of land comprising which was acquired and developed specifically for that purpose. Held in conjunction with our nation's 100th birthday of independence and serving as the nucleus of the national celebration of the anniversary, the official title was the Centennial International Exhibition. Massive in scope and lasting for six months, more than 200 temporary structures were erected on the 285 acre site, drawing 9 million visitors. The primary building was actually the largest in the world, with a footprint of 1,880 x 464 feet, enclosing no less than 21.5 acres. Much of the interiors, exteriors, and grounds were elaborately decorated with flags and patriotic hangings, and while many of these were international, the Stars & Stripes took center stage. Historical examples of all sorts of early American banners were both appropriate and abundant.

Though there were numerous other fairs that followed, of various scales, the other massive one that occurred during the 19th century too place in Chicago in 1893, to honor the 400-year anniversary of Columbus’s 1492 landing (postponed a year due to the enormous amount of work required). While the abbreviation of “Philadelphia” inscribed on the flag’s binding would suggest use at the 1876 fair, the attribution to the family that owned the flag suggests otherwise.

Born in Fairhaven Massachusetts on September 25th, 1832, to a family with a long history is ship building and maritime trade, William LeBaron Jenney was a brilliant architect and engineer who attended Phillips Academy in Andover, then Harvard, then École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures at École Centrale, Paris. Afforded the opportunity to travel outside the United States more than most, he was abroad when South Carolina troops fired on Fort Sumter in April of 1861, and Civil War was declared. Returning to the States later that year, to enlist on behalf of the Union, he mustered in at the rank of captain and aide de camp, as an Army engineer. His role primarily involved the commands of Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, where he was specifically charged with the task of designing fortifications. He was with Grant from Cairo, Illinois to Corinth, Mississippi, and at Vicksburg was named chief engineer of the 15th Army Corps. Among other engagements, Jenney was responsible for the defensive battlements at Corinth, Shiloh, and Vicksburg. Promoted to major, Jenney assumed the role of engineer-in-charge at the Union Army’s Nashville, Tennessee headquarters. Staying on more than a full year following the Confederate surrender, he resigned his commission in May of 1866, moved to Chicago in 1867, and proceeded to become a pillar among the members of his field, though he continued his involvement in military matters. Of his many projects, the most visually incredible was the massive Horticultural Building at the 1893 “World Columbian Exposition,” as it was called (a.k.a., The Chicago World’s Fair). Jenney was on the short list of the principal architects of the fair’s iconic structures. In conjunction with lead designer Daniel Burnham, and his partner, John Wellborn Root, Jenney is among the select few credited with literally changing the entire look of Chicago as a city.

The lead landscape architect for the expo was Frederick Law Olmstead, designer of New York’s Central Park. During the Civil War, Olmstead and Jenney, fellow New Englanders, together helped engineer better sanitary conditions for Northern troops, as active leaders in the Sanitary Commission. Olmstead was a principle founder of the Union League Club of New York in 1863, where the commission originated. Jenney designed the first clubhouse for the Union League Club of Chicago, in 1879. One of Jenney’s classmates in Paris had been Gustav Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower. These are the sort of circles in which he traveled.

Also in 1867, the year he moved to Chicago, Major William Jenney married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Hanna Cobb of Cleveland. So the story goes, one day he came home early to surprise Elizabeth, who was reading. She put her book down on top of a birdcage and ran to meet him. He strode across the room, lifted the book, and dropped it back on the bird cage two or three times, after which he exclaimed: "It works! It works! Don’t you see? If this little cage can hold this heavy book, why can’t an iron or steel cage be the framework for a whole building?" This soon led to Jenney’s most remembered contribution in the field of architecture, which was the concept of a steel frame structure, which he employed to build the Home Insurance Building in Chicago between 1884-1885. Located at the corner of Whacker & LaSalle until 1931, with 10 floors (soon after expanded to 12), this is considered to be the world’s very first skyscraper.

Jenney is an uncommon surname. Due to this fact, and to William Jenney’s significant involvement in the World Columbian Expo, and the high degree of likelihood that this flag bears relevance to a world’s fair, the dots to connect this particular Elizabeth Jenney to the flag are pretty easy to line up. It’s very likely that Lizzie’s name is on the flag because she is the one who took it to a cleaner, presumably at some time before her 1898 death. Though the “Phil.” inscription remains a mystery, as I could find no connection between William or Elizabeth Jenney and that city, or between them and Louisiana, that being the 18th state, the flag was probably somehow involved in the 1893 fair. Though at least one photo of the Louisiana State House at the World Columbian Expo illustrates a hand-colored image of a much larger flag than this flying above, that appears to have 17 stripes, there almost certainly would have been smaller 18 star flags, like this one, on the interior of the structure, or within the Horticulture Building that Jenney designed, or in some other location where historical flags were displayed. One plausible possibility is that an exhibitor within the Horticulture Building from Louisiana, for example, may have gifted such a flag to one or more fair officials with their appreciation. The gifting of flags at World's Fairs is a known practice and can be compared with the ceremonial gifting of the key of a city.

It is of interest to note that Major Jenney was very active in the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), the fraternal organization that served as the primary veteran’s association for the Union Army. In 1906, just one year before he passed, the Civil War veteran's memorial representing the State of Illinois specifically, designed by Jenney, was dedicated on the Vicksburg battlefield.

Mounting: The flag was mounted and framed by us in-house. We take great care in the mounting and preservation of flags and related textiles and have preserved thousands of examples. For 25 years we have maintained our own textile conservation department, led by a master’s degree level graduate from one of the nation’s top programs.

The black-painted, hand-gilded and distressed molding is Italian. The background is 100% cotton twill, black in color, that has been washed and treated for colorfastness. The glazing is U.V. protective acrylic (Plexiglas). Feel free to contact us for more details.

Condition: There is minor to modest mothing throughout, accompanied by minor soiling in limited areas. There is fading of the inked inscription. Many of my clients prefer early flags to show their age and history of use.
Collector Level: Advanced Collectors and the Person with Everything
Flag Type: Sewn flag
Star Count: 18
Earliest Date of Origin: 1876
Latest Date of Origin: 1893
State/Affiliation: Louisiana
War Association: 1777-1860 Pre-Civil War
Price: SOLD
 

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