The flag of Albany, New York consists of a tricolour of orange, white and blue with the former containing the coat of arms of Albany, as designed in 1789. The flag is based on

Prince's Flag The Prince's Flag () is a tricolour Dutch flag, first used in the Dutch Revolt during the late 16th century. The Prince's Flag is based on the flag of William the Silent, hence the name. The colours are orange, white and blue. On the basis ...

as flown by the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

(VOC), for which Hudson sailed in 1609. The flag was designed in 1909 as part of the tricentennial celebration of Henry Hudson's discovery of the Hudson River, but was not adopted until 1912 by the Albany Common Council. The banner has received a 5.2 rating by the

North American Vexillological Association The North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) is a membership organization devoted to vexillology, the study of flags. It was founded in 1967 by American vexillologist Whitney Smith, and others. Its membership of 1,100+ comprises flag s ...

, ranking 34th out of 150 flags in the latter's 2004 survey.

Design

The flag derives from Prince's Flag, a tricolor of orange, white and blue. It also hints to the large Dutch community in Albany. The flag features the coat of arms of Albany on the white stripe which consists of a

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

held by a farmer and a Native American. A Dutch sail is above the shield and on a scroll is written ''Assiduity'' which means ''diligence''. The wheat sheaves on the shield and the colonial farmer

supporter In heraldry, supporters, sometimes referred to as ''attendants'', are figures or objects usually placed on either side of the shield and depicted holding it up. Historically, supporters were left to an individual's free choice and were assu ...

holding a sickle are for farming and agriculture. The beaver on top of the wheat sheaves reflects the fur trade between the Native American people, symbolized by the Native American supporter, and the Dutch, and later English, settlers. On the crest, the Dutch sloop represents the commerce of the area and Albany as a major port on the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

History

Created around 1572,

as flown by the

(VOC), for which Hudson sailed in 1609. After 1660, the orange band was replaced by a red one as part of the creation of the

Dutch flag The national flag of the Netherlands () is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. The current design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue '' Prinsenvlag'' ("Prince's Flag"), evolving in the early 17th ...

but the reason such action was posed still remains unknown. The flag was designed in 1909 during the Hudson Fulton Celebration which commemorated Dutch explorer Henry Hudson's Hudson River exploration and Robert Fulton's steam-powered navigation invention. The flag was adopted officially 3 years later, in 1912. The banner faced controversy in 1916, when the Albany Common Council voted to change the colors to red, white, and blue as a show of patriotism during the ongoing

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The change was vetoed by Mayor Joseph Stevens. The banner has received a 5.2 rating by the

, ranking 34th out of 150 flags in the latter's 2004 survey. In 2015, the flag was called racist for its implication with the

, which trafficked slaves in the South. The flag was criticized again when a councilman demanded the flag to be changed in 2021. The councilman claimed the flag promoted white supremacy since the banner it is based on, the Dutch flag, was later used by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. The flag has also been criticized for bearing a striking resemblance to the former flag of South Africa, which is strongly linked to the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

regime from 1948 to 1994, sharing the exact same

color codes Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpti ...

on the tricolor pattern.

References

{{Flags of cities in the United States Flags of cities in New York (state) Government of Albany, New York 1789 establishments in New York (state) Tricolor flags