Flag of the vice president of the United States
Use | Other |
---|---|
Proportion | 63:80 |
Adopted | October 29, 1975 |
Design | Vice presidential coat of arms defacing white background, four dark blue mullets in each corner |
The flag of the vice president of the United States consists of the U.S. vice presidential coat of arms on a white background, with four dark blue stars in the corners. A version of the flag is kept in the vice president's office, is sometimes displayed by the vice president in official photos, and is flown on the vice president's motorcade.
The first official flag for the vice president was specified in 1936, although a special design was used at least twice during the 1910s. The flag has shared the same design as the vice presidential seal since 1948, and the current flag dates from 1975 when it was redesigned during the presidency of Gerald Ford.
Design
The vice president's flag is defined in Executive Order 11884:
The
flyshall vary according to the customs of the military services.
Attached to the order were illustrations of the seal and flag, and also a set of "specifications" for the flag, which defines more precise colors for the elements than does the blazon (written description) of the coat of arms:[1]
- Flag base—white.
- Stars, large—dark blue; stars, small—silver gray.
- Shield:
- Chief—dark blue.
- Stripes—white and red.
- Eagle:
- Wings, body, upper legs—shades of brown.
- Head, neck, tail—white, detailed silver gray.
- Beak, feet, lower legs—yellow.
- Talons—dark gray, white highlights.
- Arrows—silver gray.
- Olive branch:
- Leaves—shades of green; stem—brown.
- Olives—green.
- Rays—yellow.
- Clouds—silver gray.
- Scroll—silver gray.
- Letters—black.
- All dimensions are exclusive of heading and hems.
- Device to appear on both sides of flag but will appear reversed on reverse side of flag, except that the motto shall read from left to right on both sides.
The design of the eagle is basically identical to that in the presidential flag. Other than a slightly shorter central tail feather, which was perhaps inadvertent, all of the differences are in coloration. The written design specifies silver gray for the clouds and stars above the eagle's head, the scroll, and the arrows; these are "proper" (i.e. naturally colored), argent, white, and proper respectively in the president's seal and flag. In the flag specifications, the chief (upper third area) of the shield is dark blue (rather than the light blue specified for the presidential flag), the stem of the olive branch is brown (the presidential flag uses green), and the olives are just green (instead of specifically light green).
The background color of the flag, as on all historical versions, is white. The vice president's coat of arms does not have a ring of stars around the eagle like the president's does, but on the flag, four blue stars are added, one in the each corner.[2][3]
Sizes
The dimensions of all the elements in the flag are relative to the
A U.S. Navy ship will fly the flag while the vice president is aboard; either 3 feet 7 inches by 5 ft. 1½ in. (size 6, for ships over 600 feet long) or 1 ft. 10 in. by 2 ft. 8 in. (size 7, for ships under 600 feet). For onshore use, the dimensions are either 3 ft. 7 in. by 5 ft. 1½ in. or 1 ft. 10 in. by 2 ft. 8 in. depending on the size of the flagpole. For indoor use, a blue fringe of 2½ inches is added along with blue and white tassels. When in either small boats or automobiles, the flag is 1 ft. by 1 ft. 3 in., and on airplanes, a version 11 by 14 inches can either be printed on each side of the plane or on a detachable metal plate.[4]
The
Use
The vice president's color (with fringe, tassels, and ornamental flagstaff) is displayed in her or his office, usually along with the flag of the United States and sometimes others,[6] and sometimes as a backdrop when he or she speaks.[7] The flag will be flown from the after masthead of a U.S. Navy ship while the vice president is aboard,[4] and the Navy also prescribes several other flag sizes to use in various situations when the vice president is present. Similarly, the Army prescribes use of the color (with fringe) or flag (without fringe) in different situations when the vice president is present.[5]
History
The first official flag for the vice president came in 1936, long after flags were designed for most other high government officials, though on two earlier occasions (1915 and 1919) a specially-designed, unofficial flag was used for the vice president when he was representing the president at official functions. Since 1948, the flag has contained the vice presidential coat of arms, the central part of the vice presidential seal. One common thread through all the flag designs is a white background; the presidential flag has (almost) always had a blue background.
In 1857, the Navy proposed honoring the president and vice president by flying the national flag at the mainmast, with the president receiving a 21-gun salute and the vice president an 18-gun version. This was not adopted, but the Naval Regulations of April 18, 1865 specified that the national flag should be flown at the mainmast during a visit from the president, and at the foremast if the vice president was aboard. Subsequent regulations switched between the national flag and union jack for the honors, but the December 31, 1869 regulations reverted to the same honors as 1865.[8][9]
Unofficial 1915 flag
In March 1915, Vice President
The basic design was therefore a full-color version of the obverse side of the Great Seal of the United States, i.e. the eagle grasping an olive branch and thirteen arrows, with a constellation of stars surrounded by a ring of clouds over it, on a white background. The color specifications given by the Navy were:[13]
FIELD: White
EAGLE: Brownbunting, feathers outlines in white worsted.
EAGLE'S TALONS & BEAK: Yellow bunting worked with black bunting and black worsted.
SHIELD: Red, white, and blue bunting.
HALO: White muslin stars planted on field of light blue bunting, outlined with rays of yellow worsted.
RIBBON: Yellow bunting outlined in black bunting on #1 and black worsted on #6 size.
LEAVES: Green bunting.
ARROWS: Yellow bunting outlined with black worsted.
Another contemporary description was as follows:[16]
The flag of the Vice-President is white. The eagle is brown with feathers outlined in white. The talons and beak are yellow, worked with black worsted. The shield is blue in chief, with vertical pales white and red, below. In the halo or "glory" on this flag, the stars are white, placed on a field of light blue, outlined with rays of yellow worsted. The white ground of the flag prevents the definite dermarkation of the white cloud which should surround the "glory." This part of the crest, i. e. the halo, is outlined with yellow worsted, so that practically almost the same effect is produced as that on the President's flag.
The Secretary of the Navy's flag is blue with a white anchor and stars on it; the flag of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy uses the same design with the colors reversed (blue stars and anchor on a white background). The same concept was used for the vice president's flag, and has since become the standard system in the U.S. Government for differencing the flags of the first and second ranking civilian officials in any hierarchy,[17] and would be repeated on all subsequent vice presidential flags.
Vice President Marshall arrived at the Exposition on March 20, 1915.[18] On March 22, he attended a ceremony in San Francisco Harbor aboard the heavy cruiser USS Colorado,[21] at the time serving as Admiral Thomas B. Howard's flagship for the Pacific Fleet. At 3:15 in the afternoon, Marshall boarded the ship, and the vice president's flag was raised at the mainmast.[13][22] (In an oft-retold story, while trying to hold his cane, cigar, and top hat in his left hand so he could return a salute with his right, Marshall was unprepared for the 19-gun salute and sent all of the items flying in the air.[23])
The flag was used on at least one other occasion, in 1919. Due to President Wilson's
Originally, several reports said the 1915 design was intended to be the official flag for the vice president,[10][13][16][22] but no such official order is known.[13] Following the 1915 ceremony, Marshall asked to keep the flags, and they were given to him.[13] A flag of this design, presumably either from 1915 or 1919, is housed at the Scottish Rite Masonic Cathedral in Fort Wayne, Indiana (Vice President Marshall's hometown).[9][26]
1936 flag
In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7285, which defined an official flag of the vice president for the first time. The design was the same as the president's flag of the time, as specified in Executive Order 2390 from 1916, except with the colors reversed (much like the 1915 concept). The president's flag design was a mostly white eagle (in the presidential seal form, with the head facing to its left) on a dark blue background with four white stars in the corners. Accordingly, the vice president's flag had a mostly blue eagle with four blue stars on a white background. The shield was in color, with its blue chief over white and red stripes; the eagle's beak and talons were yellow, and the olive branch was green. The dimensions were 10.2 by 16 feet (3.1 m × 4.9 m).[9][13][27]
The instigation for the 1936 flag appears to have been a letter from Vice President
1948 flag
In 1945, President Roosevelt started the process of changing the president's flag and seal shortly before his death, and the process was continued by President Truman later that year before officially making the change in October. During the process, it was recognized that since the vice president's flag was based on the president's, it would need to change too. Truman accordingly asked for sketches of possible designs, but since the vice presidency was vacant at the time there was no immediate need to make the change and it was delayed.[29]
Shortly after the 1948 election, President Truman issued Executive Order 10016 to redefine the coat of arms, seal and flag of the vice president. Because the seal was to use the same design, the coat of arms was made distinctive from the president's. While still a derivative of the national coat of arms, the eagle's wings are more outstretched, with the wing tips pointing slightly down. The eagle's right talon holds a smaller olive branch, and the left talon holds a single arrow. The eagle emblem is surrounded by a ring of thirteen stars (representing the original 13 colonies).[29] As with previous vice presidential flags, the background color was white. The executive order had an attachment which had a set of color specifications more detailed than the written definition:
- Flag base—white.
- Stars—blue.
- Shield:
- Chief—blue.
- Stripes—white and red.
- Eagle:
- Wings, body, upper legs—shades of brown.
- Head, neck, tail—white, shaded gray.
- Beak, feet, lower legs—yellow.
- Talons—dark gray, white high lights.
- Arrow—yellow.
- Olive branch:
- Leaves, stem—shades of green.
- Olives—light green.
- Scroll—yellow with brown shadows.
- Letters—black.
- Device to appear on both sides of flag but will appear reversed on reverse side of flag, except that the motto shall read from left to right on both sides.
Like the current flag, the dimensions of the elements were given relative to the hoist (vertical size), and the fly (horizontal size) of the flag varied per the differing customs of the military services. The size of the color though was fixed at 4.33 by 5.5 feet (1.32 m × 1.68 m).[30] This flag took practical effect when Alben W. Barkley was inaugurated as vice president on January 20, 1949.
1975 flag
More than one vice president disliked the design of the eagle on the 1948 seal and flag. When Nelson Rockefeller, who was particularly critical of it, was nominated to the office under President Gerald Ford in 1974, he received permission to redesign the seal (and therefore the flag). The Army's Institute of Heraldry was asked to come up with an appropriate design. After several months of work, where about twenty models were rejected,[31] a design was finally accepted and Ford issued Executive Order 11884 on October 29, 1975, which redefined the coat of arms, seal, and flag of the vice president.[32]
The use of the four stars (one in each corner) is a characteristic shared by the flags used by the members of the president's
The written description (blazon) as well as the actual drawings were essentially identical to the presidential coat of arms, except for some differences in the colors, meaning that the eagle was now much fuller with the wing tips pointed up, holding a larger olive branch and the full complement of thirteen arrows. The ring of stars was removed, and the eagle was made larger to fill the space, so the eagle on the vice presidential flag is slightly larger than that of a presidential flag of the same size.[3]
The 1975-introduced vice president's flag is still current and thus has not been changed since.
See also
- Seal of the vice president of the United States
- Flag of the president of the United States
- Flags of governors of the U.S. states
- Great Seal of the United States
References
- ^ a b Executive Order 11884
- OCLC 4268298.
- ^ a b The Eagle and the Shield , p. 466-467
- ^ a b United States Navy (August 1986). "NTP13(B): Flags, Pennants, & Customs". The sizes for shipboard use are in section 905, and boats/autos in section 1101 (precise dimensions for both in Annex D, page D-9). Onshore sizes specified in section 1504 (depends on if the flagpole is taller than 35 feet or not), and the aircraft plates are in section 1402. The tassel information is in section 1723, while the vice president's flag itself (along with its fringe size) is in section 1802. Notes on the manner of displaying are in section 901.
- ^ a b United States Army. "Army Regulation 840-10: Flags, Guidons, Streamers, Tabards, and Automobile and Aircraft Plates" (PDF). Table 1-1 defines which flags can be used for the vice president. The dimensions for the indoor color are in section 3-2; the field flag in 3-39; the boat flag 3-40; the auto flag 3-41; the auto plate 3-42; and the aircraft plates 3-43.
- ^ "Vice President's Office". whitehousemuseum.org.
- ^ Mark Wilson/Getty Images. "Bidens, Shinseki Host Veterans Day Luncheon For Military Families". zimbio.com.
- OCLC 990016.
- ^ a b c "Vice President (U.S.)". Flags of the World.
- ^ a b "Flag for Vice President", The New York Times, March 16, 1915 This article also describes the upcoming flag as having a "blue bird", which was incorrect, as it was the full-color version of the president's flag which was used. It is possible the author thought the 1902 president's flag, with the white eagle, was being reversed—that would have required a blue eagle on a white background (which was indeed the basic design of the later 1936 vice president's flag).
- ^ OCLC 1610124.
- OCLC 247285838.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Army Institute of Heraldry. "Vice President of the United States". Archived from the original on September 24, 2008.
- OCLC 44752397.
- ^ Zeh, Lillian E. (January 1914), "Making Flags for the U.S. Battleships", Overland Monthly, vol. LXIII, no. 1, Samuel Carson, pp. 91–92
- ^ a b Hodgins, George Sherwood (1918), "National Flags of the United States", The Journal of American History, 12 (2), National Historical Society: 293–294 The "same effect" is presumably in reference to the 1902 president's flag, which omitted the ring of clouds above the eagle and had a "starburst" of only yellow rays instead. The white clouds of the full-color president's flag on the white background would give a similar effect.
- Undersecretary of the Navyposition was created below the Secretary but above the Assistant, whose flag is a white anchor and stars on a red background.
- ^ Todd, Frank Morton; Panama-Pacific International Exposition Company (1921). The Story of the Exposition. Pub. for the Panama-Pacific international exposition company by G.P. Putnam's sons.
- ^ Crawford, Richard (August 24, 2008). "Navy's original cruiser San Diego met its demise in World War I". The San Diego Union-Tribune.
- ^ "Balboa Park History".
- ^ a b Philibert, Helene (1931). "Those That are Carried in the Tops of Ships". Naval Institute Proceedings. 57. United States Naval Institute: 366.
- ^ "Thomas R. Marshall, 28th Vice President (1913-1921)". United States Senate.
- ^ "Flag for Vice President", The New York Times, March 16, 1915
- ^ The Eagle and the Shield, p. 460-461. The notes on page 460 say the Army Institute of Heraldry has photos of these flags, apparently from both occasions.
- ^ "Vice Presidential Trivia". quaylemuseum.org. Archived from the original on December 2, 2002.
- ^ The Eagle and the Shield, p. 460
- ^ The Eagle and the Shield, pp. 460-461 and p. 461 footnotes.
- ^ a b The Eagle and the Shield , p. 462
- ^ Executive Order 10016
- ^ The Eagle and the Shield , p. 465 footnote
- ^ The Eagle and the Shield, p. 465