The next scheduled half-staff flag day is December 7—National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

The Marine Air Terminal at La Guardia Airport in New York City.

A famous design from the town that made it famous—Philadelphia

You don’t have to be a New Yorker to recognize this famous bridge in Brooklyn.

Location unknown.

In Washington, D.C.

You can view more of Alex’s photographs at Alex Richman Photography, his blog Sidewalk Photographer, and his Flickr page.

Flag on Wonder Wheel at Coney Island by Alex Richman

Pinwheel for sale at Brooklyn street festival, by Alex Richman

See the Alex Richman Photography portfolio here.

But how else shall I find the tiny images of flags? I wondered this morning, how many people have stared at these same photographs, trying to unlock a mystery or determine a single bit of information. Not just to identify faces, although that is surely a popular reason. But what about the person who is seeking images of watches or the button collector? Does the man who restores or builds wagon wheels stop over every photo of a wooden wheel? What about swords, side-arms, rifles, and cannon?

I found myself quickly skipping past photographs that did not have a flag in them, and that’s a mistake. I need to go back and look at everything in each photo. What story I have overlooked from the cobbler’s point of view?

What does this photograph reveal? I stopped on it because I spotted the large U.S. flag. Too large perhaps, for their needs, but they have it displayed anyway—draped and swagged over the opening to the tent. What else? Two tripods for their surveying tools. A black man with a broom. The soldiers’ uniforms and shoes appear to be in good condition, so this company likely has not been directly in battle thus far. Cocked caps according to individual preference. Some of the soldiers have bedrolls on their backs. Plenty of rifles in view. And last, but not least—one man appears to be sitting on a drum.

Engineers of the 8th New York State Militia in front of a tent, 1861. (Ill-B-499).

In the meantime, while I continue to work on this project, here is a photograph of the USS Cairo (1862). This is the only known photograph of the USS Cairo, and obviously was her formal portrait.

Note: However, having enlarged the photograph as much as I can, I’m not sure the flag being flown is the standard U.S. flag of 1862. It is not the Navy jack of that time period either, which would be only the blue union. There seems to be some damage to the photograph right on top of the flag which muddles the image. The flag, which seems much larger than what would have been flown when the ship was underway, looks to me like the first Navy Jack—the stripes and rattlesnake “Don’t Tread on Me.” Which would mean that this is an early photograph of an historic American flag, and I’ll need to adjust my guidelines. Historians and scholars, please write if you have information that will clarify what flag this is.

USS Cairo, a 512-ton “City” class ironclad river gunboat built at Mound City, Illinois, was commissioned in January 1862 as part of the U.S. Army’s Western Gunboat Flotilla. She began war operations in February, taking part in the occupations of Clarksville and Nashville, Tennessee. In April and May 1862, Cairo was involved in the campaign to capture Fort Pillow and was present during the 10 May naval action there. She was also engaged with Confederate warships during the action off Memphis, Tennessee, on 6 June 1862.

Cairo continued her operations on the Mississippi River and its tributaries and was formally transferred to the Navy in October. On 12 December 1862, while engaged in mine clearance activities on the Yazoo River, Mississippi, Cairo was sunk by a Confederate mine (or “torpedo,” as mines were then known). Her wreck was recovered in 1965, but was badly damaged during the salvage efforts. It has subsequently been partially restored and is on exhibit at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Photograph and information from the U.S. Navy’s Naval Historical Center.

(f) The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.

Believing that most laws (and rules) have an originating  factor, my mind races to understand what must have transpired requiring this sentence’s inclusion in the Flag Code.

I can see it now—

Dateline Washington D.C., June 1942. Hot and muggy, Congress is in session hammering out one of the most important documents requiring their attention—the United States Flag Code.

The Distinguished Congressman from West Virginia, "I say gentlemen. We need to make sure no one uses the American flag for a bedspread in their private bedroom. This would demonstrate willful disrespect for Old Glory."

The Distinguished Congressman from Minnesota, "Well, unless its made out of wool, it wouldn’t be warm enough to use in my home state, but someone might use it to decorate the ceiling of their fishing shed."

West Virginia Congressman—"You don’t say … Hmmm, maybe we should include a ban on using the flag to cover a ceiling instead."

Congress in unison, "Hey, that’s a really, really good idea. We all make a motion to add a sentence to the Flag Code banning ceiling covering."

Congress in unison, "Second the motion."

" I have a motion and a second, all in favor? … Motion carried by majority. Now included in the United States Flag Code is a sentence banning any individual from covering their ceiling with an American flag."

Ok, maybe my rendition isn’t historically accurate*, but just think about it. What factors could have taken place that even brought this to their minds with enough force to ban the practice? I can’t imagine.

I also wanted to include a photograph with this editorial showing the U.S. Flag covering a ceiling, but this is the only example I could find, dated 1896—almost 50 years before it became a violation. At least this law against disrespect has worked.

*This is a dramatization. The U.S. Flag Code was a compilation from many different sources—State Flag Desecration Laws, Military Flag Codes, and more, compiled in 1923 by the National Flag Conference.

• American flag
• U.S. Army flag
• U.S. Marines flag
• U.S. Navy flag
• U.S. Air Force flag
• U.S. Coast Guard flag

I found this photo yesterday on the internet. I’d give attribution—in fact I spent hours searching for attribution—but all I can tell you is that the photograph must have been taken on March 12, when Sen. Barack Obama held a news conference at the Chicago Museum of History. Nine former generals and admirals attended the event. I don’t understand why the Illinois state flag was slighted since the photo was taken in Chicago. (You can bet if this occasion had occurred in Texas, the Lone Star would have been in the line-up.)

Screen capture from Deborah’s Google news reader

And as much as I love the Lone Star flag (Larry too!), we are greatly relieved that the Texas primary elections are behind us now, because our Google news readers were swamped with hits for “Texas flag” and “Lone Star flag.” Hundreds of stories every day with Texas flag or Lone Star flag—often both—in the same story, and frequently repeated several times.

From the beginning of Flags Bay, I set up my Google reader to search for every state’s flag, and now as the politicians have traveled around the country on their campaigns, that state’s flag usually shows up in the news stories.

Only Ohio’s primary came anywhere near to producing as many flag stories as the Texas primary. Ohio’s pennant-shaped flag is unique among all the state flags, and was prominently features throughout the campaign process. But Wyoming’s flag was scarcely mentioned in their recent primary election, and Wyoming has a terrific flag!

On the maps below, from the The Washington Post, the states shown in white are states that have NOT held their primary elections. I hope those state flags will be featured if for no other reason than for me to build up my reserve stock of state flag photos!

maps of the Primaries from the Washington Post

*Larry likes to read about fast cars; I like to read about fast boats and fast airplanes—specifically P.T. boats and B-25 bombers. Go figure.

The Texas primaries were held last week and I’m sure glad they’re finished. The influx of news stories including references to flags saw a significant increase over the last month.

I subscribe to a lot of feeds in my news reader to find the latest flag news to share with all of you. I look for references to the U.S. flag and state flags, and if you haven’t noticed, politicians love to stand in front of flags while they pontificate on their worthiness to lead. Because of this, my news reader has overflowed with news about politicians and the U.S. and Texas flags.

Thousands of news stories every day to wade through, looking for flag news to share. I’m already seeing some relief, with the news at a modest level over the weekend. I may survive until the real elections kick off in a few months.

I’m glad this doesn’t happen every year.