The flag of Indiana was designed by Paul Hadley and officially adopted by the state of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

on May 11, 1917. It was the state's first official flag and has remained unchanged since then except for the creation of a statute to standardize the production of the flag.

History

To commemorate the state's 1916 centennial anniversary, the

Indiana General Assembly The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. Th ...

issued a resolution to adopt a state flag. At the request of the General Assembly, a contest was sponsored by the Indiana Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to design a flag to serve as the official state banner. As an incentive to increase the number of submissions, the contest offered the winner a one hundred dollar cash prize. More than two hundred submissions were received and examined by the Society before a winner was selected. The entry created by Paul Hadley of

Mooresville, Indiana Mooresville is a town in Brown Township, Morgan County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 9,326. History Mooresville was founded in 1824 by Samuel Moore, and named for him. A post office has been in op ...

, was ultimately chosen as the winner of the contest and the cash prize. On May 31, 1917, the flag was chosen as the state's official banner. The General Assembly made only one change to Hadley's original design: they added the word ''Indiana'', in a crescent shape, over the top of the torch. The state ''banner'' was later renamed the state's ''flag'' in a new statute passed in 1955 that also standardized the dimensions of the flag. The symbols of the Indiana state flag such as the torch in a circle of stars were used in the Indiana Bicentennial Torch Relay in 2016.

Iconography

The flag consists of a gold

torch A torch is a stick with combustible material at one end, which is ignited and used as a light source. Torches have been used throughout history, and are still used in processions, symbolic and religious events, and in juggling entertainment. I ...

that represents

liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

and enlightenment; the rays around the torch represent their far-reaching influence. The nineteen stars represent Indiana's place as the nineteenth state to join the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The thirteen stars in the outer loop symbolize the original

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th cent ...

, the five inner stars represent the next five states added to the Union, and the one large star above the torch represents Indiana.

Indiana Code The Indiana Code is the code of laws for the U.S. state of Indiana. The contents are the codification of all the laws currently in effect within Indiana. With roots going all the way back to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the laws of Indiana h ...

, Title 1, Article 2, IC 1-2-2-1, added 1955 In 2001, a survey conducted by the

North American Vexillological Association The North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) is a membership organization devoted to vexillology, the scientific and scholarly study of flags. It was founded in 1967 by American vexillologist Whitney Smith (1940–2016), and others. It ...

(NAVA) placed Indiana's flag 32nd in design quality out of the 72 Canadian provincial, U.S. state and U.S. territorial flags ranked.

Statute

200px, Indiana State Flag flying at the Indiana World War Memorial. The current statute that governs the design of the state flag states:

The flag's dimensions shall be three feet fly by two feet hoist; or five feet fly by three feet hoist; or any size proportionate to either of those dimensions. The field of the flag shall be blue with nineteen stars and a flaming torch in gold or buff. Thirteen stars shall be arranged in an outer circle, representing the original thirteen states; five stars shall be arranged in a half circle below the torch and inside the outer circle of stars, representing the states admitted prior to Indiana; and the nineteenth star, appreciably larger than the others and representing Indiana shall be placed above the flame of the torch. The outer circle of stars shall be so arranged that one star shall appear directly in the middle at the top of the circle, and the word "Indiana" shall be placed in a half circle over and above the star representing Indiana and midway between it and the star in the center above it. Rays shall be shown radiating from the torch to the three stars on each side of the star in the upper center of the circle.

Usage

Several other laws govern the use of the state flag. The flag is required to be flown by all state militias and the

Indiana National Guard The Indiana National Guard (INNG) is a component of the United States Armed Forces, the United States National Guard and the Military Department of Indiana (MDI). It consists of the Indiana Army National Guard, the Indiana Air National Guard, ...

. It is to be on display at the

Indiana Statehouse The Indiana Statehouse is the state capitol building of the U.S. state of Indiana. It houses the Indiana General Assembly, the office of the Governor of Indiana, the Indiana Supreme Court, and other state officials. The Statehouse is located in ...

at all times. The flag must also be displayed at any agency that is funded in part or in full by the state government, including public schools, state universities, and state parks. In all other respects the flag should be treated with the same care and respect as the flag of the United States.

, Title 1, Article 2, IC 1-2-3-6 Most prominently, the team colors for the NBA's Indiana Pacers were taken from the gold and blue of the flag. In late 2008, Bloomington-licensed CW affiliate

WTTV WTTV (channel 4), licensed to Bloomington, Indiana, United States, and WTTK (channel 29), licensed to Kokomo, Indiana, are television stations affiliated with CBS and serving the Indianapolis area. They are owned by Nexstar Media Group alongsi ...

used the flag's torch and stars element in their station logo until 2015 when they became a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate, though the logo remains in use for their second digital subchannel. A variation of the Indiana state flag was used as the Gotham flag in the 1989 movie '' Batman''. The flag can be seen in the mayor's office. The logo of the BP-acquired

Amoco Corporation Amoco () is a brand of filling station, fuel stations operating in the United States, and owned by BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and petroleum, oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company in 1889 around a oil re ...

(formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) prominently features a torch to commemorate the company's Hoosier origins; it remains in use at the few BP stations using Amoco and Standard

trade dress Trade dress is the characteristics of the visual appearance of a product or its packaging (or even the design of a building) that signify the source of the product to consumers. Trade dress is an aspect of trademark law, which is a form of intelle ...

to maintain trademark protection.

References

External links

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Symbols of Indiana