Last modified: 2022-04-22 by pete loeser
Keywords: ufe | unidentified flags | 2022 |
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Below is a series of images of flags that have been provided to FOTW; some we have recognized, and some we have been unable to recognize. If you can help us identify any of these flags, please let us know! Contact the: UFE Editor.
Identification Key:
Image from Dr. Barbara Wert, 26 September 2021
Originally sent to NAVA for identification, forwarded to FOTW by Ted Kaye, 27 March 2022.
I am a member of an historical society and on a committee to catalogue textiles in storage for our society. We came across a flag that none of our current members seem to be able to identify. Can you help? It is about 23" x 33", on a 4 foot Pole with finial and was found with other flags the same size of United States 48 star flags (same pole, finial and size).
It may be local to our area but no one knows. It is a trifold flag with golden yellow, white, and brown (faded) in that order from the pole out to the end. Have you ever seen anything like it or know of ways for my group to research or identify it? Any assistance or direction would be deeply appreciated.
Dr. Barbara Wert, Bloomsburg University, 26 September 2021
If possible, can you send an image of the flag, and of any details (writing on header, for example)? Let us know your location/society name, too - as that might provide clues.
Dyes sometimes fade or change over time - for example blue can turn into brown, so that might be part of the puzzle.
Ted Kaye, NAVA secretary, 27 September 2021
We had just pulled it out of a bag with multiple flags so please excuse the crinkles. Our Society is the Hanover Area Historical Society in Hanover, Pennsylvania. We are located between Gettysburg and York. There is no writing and yes, the colors are faded. The photo may present colors slightly different from the real thing but they seem to be a goldenrod yellow (next to the pole of the flags), white, then brown (or possibly green or possibly another color) at the free end of the flag. They were found with American flags with 48 stars of the same size and with similar poles and finials (simple cone shape). The photo is portrait but the flag is designed horizontal so you will want to turn the photo for realistic viewing.
Dr. Barbara Wert, 28 September 2021
I'm not recognizing it immediately. But I'll work on it. Coincidentally, my son did major research into tribar flags (horizontal and vertical) 20 years ago, so I'm checking his documentation for prospects. Were the others all U.S. flags or were there some others as well? If so, is it possible to list some of the other flags in the set?
Ted Kaye, 27 September 2021
There were only the US flags and several of this flag together . No other flags were found.
Dr. Barbara Wert, 28 September 2021
Information on this flag remained inconclusive and so Ted passed it on to you to see if we could find anything.
Pete Loeser, 27 March 2022
This flag reminds me of a National Woman's Party (NWP) flag used by the American Women's Suffrage movement. The "Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage" held their First International Women's Suffrage Conference in 1902, and this was before the gold-white-purple "horizontal" tricolor was made the flag of the American suffrage movement. Perhaps that mysterious faded brown/blue third stripe was actually a purple one and these flags were a set of early demonstration banners or flags used by the suffragettes before they were standardized. There were many large demonstrations with people carrying both the Stars and Stripes and Woman's Suffrage Movement Flags, displayed both horizontally and vertically. The NWP became the first group to picket the White House and frequently conducted marches. The 48-Star Flag became official in 1912 and in 1913 Alice Paul organized a large demonstration in Washington D.C., for example. Perhaps this is a set of their early parade flags you have discovered. The gold-white-purple "horizontal" tricolor only became official after 1917 when the "Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage" reinvented themselves as "The National Woman's Party." There were many demonstrations and perhaps "vertical" tricolors, or horizontal ones rotated counterclockwise, like these were used as banners or decorations? Since it is Woman's History month, why not consider this a working hypothesis?
Pete Loeser, 27 March 2022
#21a
#21b
#21c
#21e
Images from Pete Loeser, 5 April 2022
Further research shows that apparently the National Woman's Party displayed their flag vertically quite often and these photos indicate the order the stripes are shown during demonstrations appeared random as the photo (#21a) in front of the White House clearly shows. The March photo (#21b) also demonstrates this disregard to any stripe order. The NWP Convention name tag in photo #21c again shows a disregard of the vertical order of stripes. The use of both horizontal and vertical tricolors was also apparent within the British Suffrage Movement as photo #21e demonstrates.
Once again, I emphasize that this hypothesis that the flags are parade or decorative NWP flags is pure speculation at this point, but I hope this generates other theories about the identification of these flags
Pete Loeser, 5 April 2022.
Image from Eric Martin, 6 March 2022
Anyone know what this flag represents?
Eric Martin, 6 March 2022
Try Spanish or Brazilian municipal flags at FOTW.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 7 March 2022
There's a place in Brazil with a flag with similar elements. Did your photo chop off an extra star?
Ian MacDonald, 7 March 2022
Nope. Only 7 stars.
Eric Martin, 7 March 2022
It's the flag of Southampton County, Virginia. The image on the FOTW page looks like there might be an inscription on the courthouse with a clue!
Russ Adams, 8 March 2022
Thanks to everybody who took the time to help ID this flag.
Eric Martin, 8 March 2022
Image from Armin Hertel, 20 March 2022
[This message was translated and edited from German] I am looking for information on an old family flag. My hypothesis is that the mysterious flag may belong to the DSV (German Sailing Federation) cruiser division between 1933-45.
The flag itself has a red bordered (fimbriated) St. Andrew's Cross in black on a white background. The flags manufacturer was Fahnen Fleck in Hamburg. They are still in business.
Instead of a yellow golden oval with black anchor and rope as on the earlier DSV flag, it has a yellow stylized Federal Eagle (Reichsbund Adler) defaced with a NSDAP swastika. My great-grandparents had a dinghy cruiser, so it might make sense.
Armin Hertel, 20 March 2022
Although the contributor made an educated guess, I believe this might be a variant burgee of the Yacht Club of Germany (Kreuzerabteilung of YCvD), which existed between 1937 and 1945. Has anybody more information than I have?
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 20 March 2022
#24a
#24b
#24c
Images from Ron Flook, 6 April 2022
As you will appreciate many shipping companies used their house flag as the basis for their cap badge. I have a collection of badges and amongst them some have defied identification. Any help in identifying them would be very much appreciated.
Badge #24a could well be a Yacht club badge. Badge #24b is an oddity, it appears to be a Federal/NZSC badge, but the quadrants of the area where the NZSC letters should be are devoid of any letters and are coloured green. They are not discoloured as the thread show through the back and is green. [Badge #24c is shown without comment]
Ron Flook, 6 April 2022
None of the fields on these flags appear to bear any emblems and any detail you might see seems simply to be embroidery. (Much larger images are available directly upon request to me.)
Rob Raeside, 7 April 2022
Ron included three other badges (without flags on them) in hopes sombody might spot one they recognized. Since they didn't have any flags on them they are not included here as UFE items (See: Additional unknown cap badges), however if you recognize one, let Rob know directly, and he can forward the information on to Ron.
Pete Loeser, 9 April 2022
image located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 9 April 2022
I'd say #24b is the New Zealand Shipping Company (NZSC). I don't know why the specimen has green, but it looks like £70 will get
Ron the other specimen for comparison.
Speaking of green: #24a appears to have green for white as well. Someone using the wrong washing powder? Unfortunately, the right company doesn't come to mind. (At least, not today.)
Anyone else who can help us out, now that the green is identified as white?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 9 April 2022
We might look under English Shipping Companies.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 April 2022
Image from Ian Sumner, 14 April 2022
I've been asked to try and identify this flag, but it has defeated me so far, so was wondering if someone else might have better luck (or knowledge ).
It comes from a US collection with a maritime bias, based in California, and may date from any time from the Second World War onwards. I can't see anything in the US house flags on our pages, nor in Neale Rosanowski's work, nor on the websites of Josef Nüsse or Marcollect. The logo bears a superficial resemblance to those used in some blood donor campaigns (assuming the droplet "is" blood, and not, say, oil), but none are quite identical - I don't think it's American Red Cross.
Ian Sumner, 14 April 2022
Regarding this flag inquiry from Ian Sumner, as I thought it might be medical related, I contacted the American Red Cross. Their reply below:
"Thank you for contacting the American Red Cross. I am very sorry, that is not one of our symbols. I tried to do an image search on Google and was not able to find anything that matched. - Sharrie T., Customer Service Agent, American Red Cross Training Support Center"
Bill Garrison, 15 April 2022
Does this flag refers to perhaps a blood donor drive?
Esteban Rivera, 17 April 2022
I also looked as well and it reminds me of a blood bank center but I have not been able to identify it either.
Zachary Harden, 17 April 2022
Image located by Masao Okazaki, 17 April 2022
It looked like something from the 60s or 70s, so I searched for "blood donation logo 1970" and I found this image on Pinterest as the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank Logo. Designed in 1970 by Walter Landor Associates.
Regarding the maritime bias Ian mentioned, it might be due to the headquarters of the Landor and Associates design firm once being the renovated ferryboat Klamath docked at San Francisco Pier 5.
Sources: Landor Associates and Wikipedia: Richmond-San Rafael Ferry Company: The Klamath.
Masao Okazaki, 17 April 2022
So now that Masao has located the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank logo, designed by Walter Landor Associates (Landor), here's a little interesting historical insight:
On September 24, 2018, the Blood Centers of the Pacific joined 120 other community blood banks existing across the United States under the umbrella of the Vitalant Research Institute. For additional information on this see the Vitalant website. Other sources on the history of these blood banks in Wikipedia would include Blood Centers of the Pacific and Vitalant."On June 17, 1941, the Irwin Memorial Blood Bank opened its doors in response to the lack of a sufficient method of obtaining and storing blood for later use - by both the military and community hospitals in the San Francisco area. The aim was to ensure that patients in the Bay Area would never again be without an adequate supply of blood. Irwin Memorial Blood Bank is credited as the first community blood bank in the United States."
"The San Francisco County Medical Society granted the fledgling blood bank permission to operate out of the basement floor of an old San Francisco home, the Irwin Mansion. However, after years of growth, the blood bank had expanded its blood collection operations throughout Northern California."
"In April 1955, Irwin opened its new doors at Masonic and Turk Streets in San Francisco."
[It would later merge with other local community blood banks becoming the "Blood Centers of the Pacific." It remains at the same location today.]
Oh brilliant! Thanks Masao and Esteban, that looks like the symbol in question.
In further chat with the original enquirer, Jim Scriba of the Sausalito Historical Society, the original owner of the flags was associated with a ship-building company called Marinships, based in Sausalito, California. All the others that came to me for IDing were ensigns or signal flags, so my first thought was that the mystery flag had a maritime origin. But a Second World War-era blood donor drive would fit as well.
Ian Sumner, 17 April 2022
Image from BlinxCat, 17 April 2022
I purchased a set of 1900's-1910's era silk flags not too long ago, said set came with 1901 Maine, 1899 Presidential Naval Flag and a Prototype Polish flag, however one flag stood out was this mysterious flag that resembled Ukraine that had "trinity" written on it, me and a friend believe this may have to do with "Trinity College" which uses similar colors but the issue is there is no information regarding them having a flag of some kind similar to this and only having modern-day "sports styled" flags that can be bought online.
BlinxCat, 17 April 2022
Image from William Garrison, 21 April 2022
A fighter from the Free Syrian Army fires an anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on a vehicle deployed during fighting against the Islamic State near the northern village of Beraan, north of the embattled city of Aleppo, Syria, Oct. 24, 2016. (Nazeer al-Khatib/AFP via Getty Images) Read more here.
Caption reads: "A white-field flag of an unknown 'Free Syrian Army' sub-unit near Beraan, Syria (north of Aleppo, Syria); Oct. 2016. Nazeer al-Khatib/AFP via Getty Images" (source)
William Garrison, 21 April 2022
Image from William Garrison, 21 April 2022
"Members of the Israeli government called the march, which was joined by Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir, a provocation." (Daily Syndicated Source)
Caption reads: "Unidentified dark-green flag w/yellow imagery, carried in 'right wing' demonstration in their unsuccessful attempt to pass through the Damascus Gate, the entrance to the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem; (might it be a variation of the 'Otzma Yehudit' political party flag?) c. 21 April 2022."
Source: Jewish News Syndicate (JNS).
William Garrison, 21 April 2022