Betsy Ross

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

OTHER IMAGES

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.

 

John Adams was inaugurated as second president on March 4, 1797. Washington had preceded him to the hall and sat on the dais with Jefferson the Vice-President-elect, as Adams spoke. When the new President finished and left, Washington motioned to Jefferson to go next. The two Virginians had known each other since 1769, when Washington had been thirty-seven years old and Jefferson only twenty-six. From long habit and lingering respect, Jefferson now held back. But Washington gestured again, in a manner not to be ignored. The younger man was now Vice-President and must go first.

Richard Brookhiser
Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington (1996)