The flag of Pittsburgh is a triband flag featuring vertical bands of black and gold and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

's coat of arms in the center. In 2004, the flag was ranked as the twenty-fourth best flag design out of 150 city flags 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 ...

, and was the top-rated tricolor. In tribute to the flag, all four professional athletic teams in Pittsburgh in the sports of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

, and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

are black and gold. The arms are based on those of

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, (15 November 170811 May 1778) was a British statesman of the Whig group who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. Historians call him Chatham or William Pitt the Elder to distinguish ...

, namesake of the city.

Design of the flag

The flag is defined in the Code of Ordinances, City of Pittsburgh, Title I, Article I, Chapter 103, Section 3 as follows: :(a) The following shall be the forms, devices and

colors Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associa ...

of the City civic

flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

, pennant and streamer: the colors in the several forms shall be black and gold, of the hues or tints as expressed upon the pattern, and the exact copy of which is on file in the office of the

City Clerk A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a Tow ...

. :(b) The civic flag, or standard of the City, shall be as follows: the material shall be American-made bunting or silk of the colors or hues above designated, ten (10) feet in length and six (6) feet in width, or in proportion thereto. The same shall be parted vertically

per pale In heraldry, the field (background) of a shield can be divided into more than one area, or subdivision, of different tinctures, usually following the lines of one of the ordinaries and carrying its name (e.g. a shield divided in the shape of a c ...

in three (3) equal parts, of which the first and

hird The hird (also named "Håndgangne Menn" in Norwegian), in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal army, but also ...

/nowiki> shall be black and the second or middle pale gold. Upon the latter shall be blazoned the City arms, as borne upon the City seal, and the same shall be blazoned upon the middle, and occupy one-third (1/3) of the surface thereof. :The civic flag shall be displayed upon public building, at meetings of Councils and upon suitable public occasions, provided that it shall never be displayed in any position that indicates superiority or precedence to the United States flag. :(c) The City ensign or merchant flag shall be composed and parted as provided for the civic flag or standard in subsection (b) hereof; except that instead of the entire City arms there shall be blazoned upon the central pale the crest of the City arms, surrounded by thirteen (13) five-pointed dark blue stars, in a circle, whose diameter shall be four-fifths (4/5) of the width of the pale. The length or fly shall be six (6) feet, the depth or hoist four (4) feet six (6) inches or in proportion thereto. :(d) The City pennant shall be a triangular piece of gold bunting five (5) feet in length by four (4) feet in width, or in proportion thereto. In the center thereof shall be placed a black triangular field two (2) feet in width and three (3) feet in length, upon which shall be displayed the crest of the City arms and a circle of blue stars, as borne upon the City ensign. :(e) The City streamer shall be made of materials and colors above indicated two (2) feet in width and fifteen (15) feet in length, or in proportion thereto. The black shall be borne next to the staff, and shall be in length one-fourth (1/4) the length of the streamer, and shall bear upon the center thereof the City crest, gold or gilded. Seal of the City of Pittsburgh

Insignia

Motto

The phrase ''Benigno Numine'' was the

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. M ...

of the Earl of Chatham. It is generally translated as "With the Benevolent Deity" or "By the Favour of the Heavens". It was adopted by the newly formed city in 1816 but somehow fell off seals and official documents and emblems in the early 20th century before being restored to the seal by City Council on July 3, 1950, and signed off by the Mayor on July 7, 1950. Even then, widespread use of the motto was not implemented until city council looked into the matter in November 1958.

Coat of arms and seal

The city of Pittsburgh's

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is based on the arms of William Pitt, the first

Earl of Chatham Earl of Chatham, of Chatham in the County of Kent, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1766 for William Pitt the Elder on his appointment as Lord Privy Seal, along with the subsidiary title Viscount Pitt, of Burton P ...

and the city's namesake. The crest of the city's coat of arms serves as a sort of

mural crown A mural crown ( la, corona muralis) is a crown or headpiece representing city walls, towers, or fortresses. In classical antiquity, it was an emblem of tutelary deities who watched over a city, and among the Romans a military decoration. Later ...

, featuring an image of a fortress. The

Fraternal Order of Police The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) is a fraternal organization consisting of sworn law enforcement officers in the United States. It reports a membership of over 355,000 members organized in 2,100 local chapters (lodges), state lodges, and th ...

, whose first lodge was founded in Pittsburgh, additionally features the city's coat of arms within its emblem. The official

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The ...

of the city's coat of arms, as defined by a 1925 city ordinance, is as follows: :''On a field Sable, a fess chequay Argent et Azure, between three bezants bearing eagles rising with wings displayed and inverted Or. For crest, Sable a triple-towered castle masoned Argent.'' The design of the

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...

of Pittsburgh, is defined in the ''Code of Ordinances'', City of Pittsburgh, Title I, Article I, Chapter 103, Section 2 as follows: : (a) The great seal of the City and the lesser seals of the same shall be of the following design: :: (1) The great seal is a circle bearing in its center the arms and the crest of the City and upon its periphery a belt or band of Roman capital letters forming the legend "The Seal of the City of Pittsburgh, 1816, ''Benigno Numine''." :: (2) Lesser seals are the great seal of the City with this addition: on an arc of a circle having the same center as, but shorter radius than, the aforesaid legend, and placed directly below the City arms, the proper designation of the sealing office, as "Office of the Mayor," "Office of the City Clerk" or the like, such designation to be in Roman capital letters, smaller than, but of like face to those used in the peripheral legend. : (b) Hereafter all dies, engravings, plates or reproductions of the great seal and lesser seals of the City shall conform strictly to the aforesaid description, and the City arms and crest as used thereon shall adhere strictly to the official graphic rendering of the arms and crest as preserved in the archives in Council.

References

External links

History of Flag and seal

{{Flags of cities in the United States

Pittsburgh Flags displaying animals Flags introduced in 1899