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

But with the British army evacuated [from Philadelphia in 1778] and the Patriots now in charge, Philadelphia Loyalists were doubly vulnerable to censure and punishment for siding with the Crown and for having consorted with the enemy. The Philadelphia Assembly Appointed [Charles Willson] Peale and four others to be Commissioners of Forfeited Estates, and for that the commissioners would receive a 5 percent commission. Peale’s group had extraordinary power to interrogate suspected traitors, break into houses, remove property, and sell off estates. Writs were issued to seize 118 estates ...

— Paul Staiti
Of Arms and Artists: The American Revolution Through Painter’s Eyes (2016)