FORTISVEX 44 Star U.S. Flag 3x5 Feet Nylon - Made in USA with Brass Grommets

44 Star U.S. Flag History

Wyoming joined the United States on July 10, 1890, becoming the forty-fourth state. Because its admission came just after Independence Day, the official addition of its star waited until July 4, 1891. The forty-four-star flag then remained the national design through July 3, 1896. This separation of statehood from the flag change explains why a state admitted in 1890 is associated with a flag period beginning in 1891. National Park Service: state admission dates; Smithsonian: flag chronology.

Wyoming’s statehood carried an important voting-rights distinction. In 1869 its territorial legislature had granted women the right to vote, and women retained that right when Wyoming became a state in 1890. The National Park Service describes several motives behind the territorial measure, including efforts to attract women to the territory and recognition of women’s contributions to community life. The forty-fourth star therefore marks a state whose political arrangements differed significantly from those of much of the nation. National Park Service: Wyoming and women’s suffrage.

That association should not be confused with a suffrage flag. The forty-four-star United States flag represented all forty-four states, not only states that had extended voting rights to women. Its connection with Wyoming arises from the new state’s place in the admission sequence. Reading the national design alongside the state’s history makes the symbolism more precise: the star acknowledged membership in the Union, while Wyoming’s laws supply the wider story of what that membership meant in practice.

The supplied gallery shows six rows of white stars, with eight in the first and last rows and seven in each of the four middle rows. Thirteen alternating stripes complete the pictured design. A University of Florida archival presentation of the 1892 Ingraham expedition likewise identifies forty-four as the national star count of that year. The next official addition recognized Utah in July 1896, ending this five-year period. Those dates identify the national design’s official interval; they do not establish the manufacture date or provenance of an individual antique. University of Florida: the United States flag in 1892; Smithsonian: Utah’s star.

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