Forty-four star American flag designed and patented by Henry A. Bowman

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A forty-four star American flag, designed and patented by Henry A. Bowman. The flag has forty-four, white, five-pointed stars on a blue canton at the upper left corner with an alternating red and white striped field. The Old Glory blue canton is constructed from two strips of wool fabric, one thin and one thick, sewn together. The cotton stars are double appliqued on the front and back of the canton with white, zigzag stitching around the edges and in a pentagon shape at the centers of the stars. The top and bottom rows have eight stars and the four rows in between have seven stars. Each Old Glory red and white stripe, seven red and six white, is a strip of fabric stitched together to create the field. The fly end is folded over and has three vertical hem lines. The hoist end is white, twill-woven cotton.

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