Until the Executive Order of June 24, 1912, neither the order of the stars nor the proportions of the flag was prescribed. Consequently, flags dating before this period sometimes show unusual ...

Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. At least, that's what we were taught in school. But when historians go searching…there’s no proof to be found. So how did this story get started?

It was, of course, the huge American flag that flew over Baltimore's Fort McHenry on a hot summer night in 1814. "Was," because this object at hand, the original Star-Spangled Banner, is no longer ...

Enjoy a little red, white, and blue from across the Smithsonian. Visit the O Say Can You See blog for pointers on U.S. Flag Code, or learn more about the Star-Spangled Banner at the Smithsonian's ...