This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

# District of Columbia (U.S.)

## Washington, D.C.

Last modified: 2026-07-25 by rick wyatt
Keywords: district of columbia | united states | washington dc |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

image by Zachary Harden, 26 May 2016

- Description of the Flag
- Prior DC flags
  - 1937 National Geographic
  - 1917 National Geographic
  - 1888 Cigarette Cards
- A District
- "Bars and Mullets"
- United States Capitol Police flag
- Metropolitan Police Department
- 700 Thirteenth St building flag
- LGBTQ+ flag

See also:

- Town of Congress Heights
- Taxation Without Representation flag
- D.C. Statehood Green Party
- D.C. United (soccer team)
- National Law Enforcement Memorial
- Smithsonian Institution
- Wilson Center
- Washington, Maine
- Washington, Durham County, UK
- United States of America
- States of the United States
  External sites:
- Washington Post article, "The birth of the D.C. flag"

## Description of the Flag

On June 16, 1938, Congress passed Public Law 650 authorizing a flag commission "to procure a design for a distinctive flag for the District of Columbia." The commission consisted of the following:

- Melvin C. Hazen, President of the Board of Commissioners
- the Secretary of War, represented by Captain A. D. Hopping of the office of the Quartermaster General
- the Secretary of the Navy, represented by Lt. J.W. Murphy, Jr., Office of Naval Communications

Assisting the commission were:

- A. F. DuBois, Heraldic Section, Quartermaster Corps;
- G. M. Thornett, Secretary of the Board of Commissioners; and the Commission on Fine Arts.

A flag contest was announced to secure a design. On October 15, 1938, the design made by Charles A. R. Dunn was selected for the flag of the District of Columbia. Dunn had first become interested a flag for DC in 1917. At the time he was employed to do graphics work for the Thomson-Byron-Ellis Company, specifically working on putting together U.S. state flag designs under the direction of Lt. Commander Byron McCandless. This work would become the October 1917 Flag Number of the National Geographic. In this work, the District of Columbia was represented by the DC National Guard flag.
In reviewing the state flags, Dunn was impressed by the flag of Maryland and not impressed by the flags of states that depicted their seals on the flag. Dunn would soon enlist in the Army and it would not be until he returned in 1921 that he drew up a flag proposal, consisting of the coat-of-arms of George Washington (two red bars and three red stars on a white field).
In 1924, there was a brief push to adopt a flag for the District of Columbia. Although short-lived, the Evening Star newspaper published at least two of the proposals it had received. The first, on February 20, was sent by John Mackaye Dunbar and featured the shield of the arms on a red-white-blue field. Although Dunn's proposal was received prior to February 20, it was not published until March 15 and was different from his original drawings in that he used cobalt blue for the stars instead of red.
The DC Flag Commission decided to include in its search all proposals received prior to 1938 as well as new selections. Dunn sent in his 1921 red-star proposal. The chart he provided also depicted ways the flag could be used in designing flags for local governmental agencies as well as civic organizations.
On August 24, the Evening Star reported that the Flag Commission was deadlocked between two designs: Dunn's and a proposal by Mrs. George T. Hawkins. Mrs. Hawkins' proposal featured a large star (color not specified in the article) on a blue field, surrounded by 48 gold stars. The large star would be divided into 13 parts representing the original colonies and would feature in the center either the U.S. Capitol Building or the shield of the Washington coat-of-arms. The Evening Star also cited that the Commission made "no claim that the flag was the work of A. E. DuBois" or Captain Hopping. The two proposals were made into flags and the selection made by the Flag Commission was with the advice of the Commission on Fine Arts. The flag was first hoisted at the International Horse Show held in Washington in October, 1938 by Commissioner Hazen.
Annotated bibliography:

- Charles A. R. Dunn, The Origins of the District of Columbia Flag, Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, DC, 1957-59 (1961), pp. 82-86 with unpaginated plate.
  (Includes extensive quotes from the Evening Star. Note: the Evening Star went out of business and its assets were purchased by the Washington Post.)
- Government of the District of Columbia, untitled monograph, 1963, pp. 21-23.
  (An unnumbered page in my photocopy of the relevant pages shows the first hoisting and enumerates the members of the Flag Commission. Additional pages in the copy include the DC Flag Protocol.)

Construction Details
The 1938 District of Columbia Flag Commission developed the following specification:

> "The proportions of the design are prescribed in terms of the hoist, or vertical height, of the flag as follows: the upper white portion shall be 3/10 of the hoist; the two horizontal bars are each 2/10 of the hoist; the white are between the bars 1/10 of the hoist; and the base, or lowest white space, is 2/10 of the hoist. The three five-pointed stars have a diameter of 2/10 of the hoist and are spaced equidistant in the fly, or horizontal, dimension of the flag."

Source: Government of the District of Columbia, untitled monograph, 1963, pp. 21-23.
Phillip L. Nelson, 17 September 2002

## Prior D.C. flags

### Flag in 1937 National Geographic Magazine

image by Steve Stringfellow

The National Geographic magazine of 1937 shows this flag. The description in the magazine is as follows:
"In the absence of any official flag for the District of Columbia, the District Militia devised the one reproduced here, and until such time as it shall be replaced by law, it will be the flag of the District of Columbia, just as formerly the one with the hatchet has that status."
Steve Stringfellow, 13 August 2002

The device on the center (the Capitol dome in front of a rising sun) is still the crest used on coats of arms of units of the District of Columbia Army National Guard. It is, therefore, still flag relevant since it appears on the regimental and battalion colors of such units.
Joe McMillan, 14 August 2002

### Flag in 1917 National Geographic Magazine

image by Dave Martucci, 1 June 1997

Flag as shown in National Geographic Magazine (1917)

I come across this article by John Kelly in The Washington Post of 2015.01.18: “The birth of the D.C. flag”, soon in our Bibliography as [jke15] and (still) available on line at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/01/18/the-birth-of-the-d-c-flag/

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 April 2024
This article shows several previous flags and flag proposals for Washington, D.C., the city, and for the conterminous territory of the District of Columbia — including one, published in the 1917 NGM.
https://www.washingtonpost.com
The complete image shows a detail facsimile of National Geographic Magazine (1917) including the caption "N. G. District Columbia" (which I presume to mean the National Guard) and the number 350.

Another magazine article, "A Brief History of How DC’s Flag Became a Phenomenon", by Elliot Williams, Washingtonian 2018.07, available at https://www.washingtonian.com/2018/07/20/brief-history-of-how-dc-flag-became-a-phenomenon/ also refers to this 1917 use of the N.G. guidon as the pre-history of the D.C. flag whose evolution it outlines in a few brief and snazzily titled episodes:

1964 The red-and-white flag flies in front of the District Building (later the Wilson Building) for the first time.
1984 District license plates ditch their image of the Capitol in favor of the DC banner. The design remains similar today.
2011 The beer company DC Brau introduces the Public, a pale ale featuring the flag on its eye-catching can.
2012 Legislation requiring the armed services to include the DC flag whenever those of the 50 states are displayed.
2015 DC-flag tattoos, long a local counterculture staple, reach their peak when Tom Sherwood, Kojo Nnamdi, and Mary Cheh get inked with the local stars and bars.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 April 2024

### Flag in 1888 Cigarette cards

image located by Steve Shumaker, 19 March 2012

I came across a supposed flag for the Washington, District of Columbia listed as "1888 N6 City Flags WASHINGTON **AA-1793**" on eBay (www.ebay.com/itm/120608252214).

Checking our page, I find that there was no official flag for the District of Columbia prior to the current flag's adoption in 1938. Previous to that the District Militia's flag was informally used. Looking into the District's history on Wikipedia, several entities formerly existed in the District prior to 1871: City of Alexandria, the County of Alexandria, Georgetown, the City of Washington, and the County of Washington. The Virginia part, the City of Alexandria and the County of Alexandria returned in 1846. source: Wikipedia. So my first though is that the flag represented the pre-1871 City of Washington, but a second look at the Washington, DC city seal adopted in 1871 says otherwise. (About DC) The seal on the flag seem to be a (more life like) variant of the seal show on Wikipedia.
As a side note, a 1876 reported version of this seal has the Statue of Freedom instead of a George Washington statue.
Steve Shumaker, 19 March 2012

## A District

It remains a federal district, separate from the 50 states, just as it was when it was established in the late 1700s. (About 40 square miles were given back to the State of Virginia in the 1840s because they thought that there would never be enough bureaucrats to fill the original 100 square miles. Boy were they wrong!) The District has obtained a certain amount of "home rule" since the 1960s which means that the citizens may elect a Mayor and a City Council, however they have no voting representative in the U.S. Congress.
Nick Artimovich, 20 January 1998

## "Bars and Mullets"

George Washington's arms were two horizontal bars on a white field, with three red mullets (5-pointed spur rowels) in the chief. The design is seen on the side of DC official vehicles, on the license plates, etc, and was adopted as the flag of Washington, DC, in 1938. (Ironically, one of the largest examples of this flag flies on Pennsylvania Avenue and is incorrect in that the bottom "white stripe" is missing!) In the 19th century there was a belief that these design elements of G. Washington's arms were the direct antecedent of the U.S. flag. If that were true, then the U.S. flag should be called the "Bars and Mullets" not the "Stars and Stripes."
Technically, the mullets should have holes in the center where they spun on the spur, however I think heraldry has deleted the holes as unnecessary. This means that mullets end up looking exactly like five-pointed stars, which is why folks made the connection between George Washington's arms and the U.S. flag.
Nick Artimovich, 23 January 1997

Sir Lawrence Washington came from the same family as the famous American President. His memorial plaque in Garsdon Church bears the Washington coat of arms - the "Stars and Stripes" as the bars and mullets became when the Americans wanted a flag of their own. This, and more, is from the booklet for the Festival of Flowers, Malmesbury Abbey, September 6th, 7th, and 8th, 1968.
Chuck Maki, 28 August 2017

## United States Capitol Police flag

image by Randy Young, 31 July 2014

The US Capitol Police is a federal law enforcement agency charged with protecting the buildings and properties of the United States Congress, as well as members of Congress and their families, throughout the territory of the United States of America. It is one of a handful of law enforcement agencies that is responsible to the legislative branch of the US Government. The US Capitol Police have exclusive jurisdiction within the grounds of the US Capitol Building and concurrent jurisdiction with other law enforcement agencies for an area of roughly 200 blocks around the Capitol complex in the city of Washington, DC. When actively protecting members of Congress and their families, however, the agency's jurisdiction encompasses the entire United States.
(Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Capitol_Police)
A photograph found online shows an honor guard from the US Capitol Police displaying flags on the Mall in Washington, DC (www.theblueflyer.com).
The flag of the United States Capitol Police features the agency's shoulder patch displayed against a dark blue field.
Randy Young, 31 July 2014

Construction sheet: US Capitol Police
Created 5 September 1974
Base: National Flag Blue (Cable 70077)
Fringe: White (Cable 65005)

Dave Fowler, 10 July 2022

## Metropolitan Police Department

Two flags were being carried by the MPD motorcycle escort in the inaugural parade (in addition to the US and DC flags). One was the MPD flag, of which a rough version can be seen on Wikipedia.
The second was a flag with the commonly-used (in the US) motorcycle officer insignia, on a royal blue background:

image located by Dave Fowler, 21 January 2021

image located by Randy Young, 23 January 2021

A better view of the Metropolitan Police Department flag can be seen at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPoHnVeX4AAEaMv.jpg:large. From this photograph, the field appears to be a light blue similar in shade to that used in the flag of the Secretary of Defense. The department's shoulder patch is centered, and appears to be approximately one-half the height of the flag. Above the patch is arched a lighter blue ribbon bearing the words "METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT" in gold, capital, serif letters. Arched below the patch is another lighter blue ribbon with the words "WASHINGTON D.C." in similar lettering.
Randy Young, 23 January 2021

## 700 Thirteenth St building flag

image by Randy Young, 1 April 2023

Visiting Washington, DC, recently, my wife and I were walking around downtown, on 13th Street Northwest, and passed the office building at address 700 13th St NW, noting that it was flying the American and DC flags, as well as what I can only describe as an address flag. The flag was roughly 10 feet by 15 feet, bearing the inscription "700 THIRTEENTH" in white serif capital characters centered on a dark blue field.

The office building at 700 13th Street Northwest houses a number of law offices and several floors for Bank of America, as well as an underground public parking garage. I'm still not sure exactly why this building's tenants or owners felt the need for an address flag, but there it was.

Randy Young, 1 April 2023

## LGBTQ+ flag

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 28 June 2026

This LGBTQ+ flag of the District of Columbia is derived from the official district flag by repainting the bottom red bar into the colors of the Rainbow/Transgender/People-of-Color flag, white excluded, already being present as the flag field. The original version of the design was created by Michael Green of the Flags for Good flag manufacturing company and employed only the six colors of the Rainbow Flag, but was modified to include four additional colors soon afterwards [1]; both versions have had the ratio 3:5, all red areas having employed the same color shade in the former, while the rainbow red has been lighter than the unmodified red bar and the stars in the latter. The earliest currently recorded use of this design was at the WorldPride 2025 in Washington, DC [2-5], but that flag differed from the latter design by Mr Green (some other manufacturer, likely) in employing only one shade of red (bright red of the Rainbow Flag, not dark red of the District flag), as well as the ratio, which was about 1:2 here.
Image of described flag is derived from the SVG drawing of the District flag from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Washington,_D.C.svg
Sources:
[1] Flags for Good company website - Washington DC LGBTQ+ Pride Flag: https://flagsforgood.com/collections/dc/products/rainbow-washington-dc-flag
(image 1: https://flagsforgood.com/cdn/shop/files/Rainbow-washington-DC-pride-Flag.jpg)
(image 2: https://flagsforgood.com/cdn/shop/products/Rainbow-DC-Flag-Unfolded.jpg)
[2] Flickr - Photo from the World Pride, in Washington, DC on 2025-06-08: https://www.flickr.com/photos/redbeardmathpirate
[3] Flickr - Photo from the World Pride, in Washington, DC on 2025-06-08: https://www.flickr.com/photos/redbeardmathpirate
[4] Flickr - Photo from the World Pride, in Washington, DC on 2025-06-08: https://www.flickr.com/photos/redbeardmathpirate
[5] Flickr - Photo from the World Pride, in Washington, DC on 2025-06-08: https://www.flickr.com/photos/redbeardmathpirate

Tomislav Todorovic, 28 June 2026