The Stars and Stripes and Other American Flags

Stars and Stripes and other American flags, incidental to another enterprise, and this interest became so absorbing that he was led to seek further information merely out of personal interest. This information, much of it obtained through extensive correspondence in quest of new material, or for the verification of that already published, where any doubt as to authenticity appeared, finally became so voluminous that friends urged its publication. It was not, however, until he had ascertained that the literature on the subject was very incomplete that it was decided to put it in form for the printer. An effort has been made in this work to make the history as complete as the sources of information permit. With a few exceptions, the Stars and Stripes is the oldest national standard and ensign in the world. That of Denmark, a red swallow-tailed flag with a white cross, the colors of Savoy, which was adopted in the year 1219, is the oldest European national standard and ensign. The second in order of age among the nations of Europe is the flag of Switzerland, a red field with a white Greek cross, which was adopted during the seventeenth century. The flag of the Red Cross Association of Geneva interchanges the colors of the Swiss flag. Peter the Great established the Order of St. Andrew in 1698, and the symbol of the patron saint of the Russians, an X-like cross of blue, has been placed upon a great variety of official flags.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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