![[U.S. 31 star flag 1851]](../images/u/us-1851.gif)
image by Clay Moss, 15 February 2007
Last modified: 2024-08-31 by rick wyatt
Keywords: thirty-one | united states | commodore perry | trumbull |
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image by Clay Moss, 15 February 2007
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In 1851, one star was added, representing California, bringing the total number of stars to 31. There were thirteen stripes representing the thirteen original colonies.
Rick Wyatt, 5 April 1998
This flag flew from 4 July, 1851, to 3 July, 1858.
Clay Moss, 15 February 2007
![[U.S. 31 star flag 1851]](../images/u/us~1851.gif)
image by Clay Moss, 15 February 2007
![[U.S. 31 star flag 1851]](../images/u/us-1851p.gif)
image by Matthew White, 6 March 2002
In the book Jumbo's Hide, Elvis's Ride, and the Tooth of Buddha by Harvey Rachlin (a history of artifacts), I saw a photo of the 31-star flag flown by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry in Japan in 1853. The flag is in the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, and it measures 41x64 inches. There's a smaller photo of it on navy website.
Matthew White, 6 March 2002
See also Commodore Perry from the War of 1812 (elder brother of M.C.Perry)
![[U.S. 31 Great Star flag]](../images/u/us-31gs.gif)
image by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 27 July 2001
This brilliant "Great Star" flag was edged with black crape on the occasion of Lincoln's funeral. This was not removed and the flag served again in this guise for the mourning of the other assassinated American presidents, including that of President Kennedy.
Blas Delgado Ortiz, 27 July 2001
![[U.S. 31 Star Trumbell flag]](../images/u/us-1851t.gif)
image by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 27 July 2001
This flag was used by the Navy during the War of Independence. The basic format of this flag, with the large single star in the middle, was used from around 1778 to 1880. This version is from the 1850s. This design is based on the square canton flags as recorded by the painter John Trumbull in his historic canvases, "The Surrender at Saratoga", 1778, and "The Surrender at Yorktown", 1781.
Blas Delgado Ortiz, 27 July 2001
![[U.S. 31 Star Scattered Canton Design flag]](../images/u/us-1851s.gif)
image by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 24 October 2001
This thirty-one star flag is of the "scatter" pattern, with the stars seemingly thrown haphazard on the blue field, forming a scintillating
constellation.
Blas Delgado Ortiz, 24 October July 2001
![[U.S. 31 Star Douglas / Johnson Campaign Banner]](../images/u/us-1851dj.gif)
image by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 22 December 2005
This thirty-one star flag is a Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson campaign banner -1858. The flag apparently had some lettering in the form of a long sentence or sentences written vertically in black, taking up three lines through the red & white stripes, just in the middle area from the canton to the fly edge. Douglas was reelected in 1958 while running against Lincoln.
Blas Delgado Ortiz, 22 December 2005
![[U.S. 31 Star]](../images/u/us-31star-1.jpg)
image by Pete Loeser, 1 June 2018
I found this flag in the Calaveras County Museum (San Andreas, California).
The First Courthouse building in Calaveras County (made of camphor panels that
were shipped from China because of the lack of wood locally), was constructed in
1850, making it one of the oldest surviving structure once used as a courthouse
in California. California was admitted as a state in 1850. What was interesting
to me was the flag displayed with the small courthouse was an apparent 31 Star
flag with a concentric circle design (the stars arranged with one in the center
and two concentric rings of stars and one in each corner). This star pattern
later became popular on many Civil War flags.
Pete Loeser, 1 June
2018
