RAVEN Publishes Volume 13

With its 2006 issue Raven continues its standard format: several excellent articles on varied flag topics. Three were presented first as papers at NAVA’s annual meeting in 2005; they represent the pinnacle of vexillological scholarship in North America and include the winner of the Captain William Driver Award. A fourth brings new insights into one of the earliest flags of the U.S. Each article, in its own way, connects history to the present through an understanding of flags and their use in Canada and the United States, showing that flags are much more than static bits of cloth—they form a dynamic part of human public ritual.

Flag and Symbol Usage in Early New England
David B. Martucci, NAVA past president and co-founder of the New England Vexillological Association—Washington, Maine.
All European powers that explored and claimed territory in New England used flags; the English colonists transplanted extensive flag traditions to the New World. The varying use of militia flags, the excision and restoration of the “idolatrous cross”, and the evolution of the Pine Tree flag provide compelling chapters in colonial history. This paper received the 2005 Captain William Driver Award.

Flag Display and Precedence in Québec
Patrice de la Brosse, retired protocol officer for Québec’s ministry of international relations, Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Québec.
Québec’s size and unique historical origins lead many to consider the province a “nation within a nation”, with concomitant challenges in the use of the provincial and national flags in official ceremonies. A veteran of many years of resolving these challenges describes their difficult background and resourceful solutions.

“A splendid and beautiful Silk Flag”: Restoring and Remembering America’s History Stitch by Stitch
Laura K. Kidd, associate professor at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.
The conservation of a 1913 U.S. flag that originally belonged to Worthen Post No. 128 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Murphysboro, Illinois, provides a case study in complementary interventive and investigative conservation methods. “Before” and “after” images demonstrate the success of the project.

The Flag on Prospect Hill
Peter Ansoff, NAVA president and determined debunker of revolutionary-war-era flag myths, Annandale, Virginia.
What flag did General Washington actually fly outside of Boston on 1 January 1776? This incisive and well-researched analysis demonstrates that the flag over Prospect Hill was more likely the British Union Flag, with the English and Scottish crosses overall, rather than the 13-striped Continental Colors as believed by historians for 150 years. Click here to download and view the article.