Lewis’ and Clark’s American Flag

hough the flag pictured here was made in 1813, by flag maker Mary Pickersgill, it may be similar to those carried by the Lewis and Clark Expedition starting in 1803. With 15 stars and 15 stripes, the pictured flag inspired the name “the Star-Spangled Banner” following the Battle of Baltimore.

Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution

Though it was still red, white and blue, many today may not recognize the American flags flying over the United States as Lewis and Clark made their historic journey west. When Congress passed the first Flag Act in 1777, they “Resolved: That the flag of the United States be made of 13 stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” But, in 1795, after Vermont and Kentucky became states in 1791 and 1792, respectively, Congress approved the addition of two stripes and two stars making what we know now as the 15-star flag. It was this flag, the only American flag design to ever have more than 13 stripes, that Lewis and Clark would have recognized as one of their commissioning country’s iconic symbols.

The Corps of Discovery carried flags, as gifts or trade items for tribes they encountered along their route, and this 15-star flag may have been at least one of the designs they sourced. In 1804 Captain Clark wrote about presenting a flag during the group’s council with the Otoe and Missouria tribes, “We Collected those Indians under an orning of our Main Sail, in presence of our Party paraded & Delivered a long Speech to them expressive of our journey the wirkes of our Government, Some advice to them and Directions how They were to Conduct themselves. . . . the princapal Chief for the nation . . . being absente we sent him the Speech flag Meadel & Some Cloathes.” Along with the pictured 15-star flag, there were likely other flag style sourced by Captain Lewis for the expedition, though exact designs remain unknown.

The 15-star American flag, as shown here, was immortalized by Francis Scott Key, who was inspired to write the poem, “The Defense of Fort M’Henry” following British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the war of 1812. His poem, which would become the United States of America’s national anthem in 1931, Key minted the American flag’s now famous moniker “the Star-Spangled Banner.” The 15-stars and 15-stripes American flag continued to fly over the United States until Congress passed the Flag Act of 1818, which restored the flag’s original 13 stripes but added five stars to represent states who had joined the union between 1796 and 1817.

Read more about Flags of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Discovering Lewis and Clark.

Read more about the 15-Star Flag and the War of 1812 from Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine.

Read more about American Flags in National Parks from the National Park Foundation.