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Massachussets (United States)

Rich Orman

Change of 1971

See also:

United States of America
States of the United States
Massachusetts Executive Office of Communities and Development with information on all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, including their seals Scott D. Mainwaring, 1996-FEB-07

Change of 1971

From the 18th century, Massachusetts used a white flag with its coat of arms in the center. In 1915 this was legally established as the state flag. On the front was the blue shield with the indian holding a bow and arrow. A ribbon with the state motto was around the shield, and an arm holding a sword was used as a crest. Since flags were hand painted in 1915, the reverse was made to be more simple: a green tree was painted in the middle of the shield, no ribbon, no motto, no crest. By 1971 this had become an expensive flag to manufacture, so Whitney Smith of the Flag Research Center had his legislator introduce a law to re-define the state flag to make it same on front and back. The silver star next to the Native American was made "white" so as to avoid printing another color. The green pine tree was taken off the reverse of the flag and placed on a white field to re-create the Massachusetts maritime flag, just like the one used during the late 18the century Revolutionary War.

Nick Artimovich, 1996-JUL-31