Hawaii State Flags

History of the Hawaii State Flag

The flag of the state of Hawaii consists of eight horizontal stripes of white, red, and blue. The colors represent the eight main islands of Hawaii. The flag was designed in the 1850s by a group of Hawaiian intellectuals and adopted as the official flag of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1845. After the kingdom was overthrown in 1893, the flag was retained as the flag of the Territory of Hawaii and then, after Hawaii was admitted to the Union as a state in 1959, as the state flag of Hawaii. The flag has been modified several times since its adoption, with the most recent change being the addition of a ninth stripe representing the island of Kauai in 2012.