Betsy Ross

The Birth of Old Glory, c. 1917

The Birth of Old Glory, c. 1917
by Edward Percy Moran

OTHER IMAGES

Betsy Ross Flag
Betsy Ross House

QUICK FACTS
BORN:
1 January 1752 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  DIED:
30 January 1836 in Philadelphia
Buried at the Betsy Ross House
  • On 14-Jun-1777 the United States adopted a national flag with 13 stars and stripes.
  • There is no evidence that Betsy Ross designed the flag. It was probably designed by New Jersey lawyer Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
PLACES TO VISIT

Portrait to come. See entry in Wikipedia.

 

Categories
Pennsylvania
Stars & Stripes

Charles Willson Peale, despite his devotion to the taxonomic and contemplative majesty of the natural world, nevertheless loved novelties and used all sorts of amusements to attract customers to his museum. He eventually resorted to hiring a popular musical performer who played five different instruments simultaneously, using all parts of his body. Following Peale’s death the museum passed into the enterprising hands of P. T. Barnum, becoming part of his traveling circus — a romantic ending for an Enlightenment institution.

— Gordon S. Wood
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)