Women Make the Stars and Stripes
In July 2024, when we can order almost anything we need for everyday use by clicking buttons on an electronic device, I imagine that it is hard for children—and many adults, too—to appreciate the sweat and toil involved in making the objects we order.
In honor of Independence Day this year, Ray and I decided to purchase a new American flag and flagpole. On Saturday, while enjoying supper and a game of Spades with friends. the husband helped Ray attach the flagpole on the garage porch.
Yesterday I wrote about the history of the Stars and Stripes and mentioned the hard work of five or possibly six women who constructed the flag that flew at Fort McHenry on the day during the War of 1812 when Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
As seen in the Library of Congress photos below, flag making continued to be hard work in the years that followed. The first photo, which is undated, shows a man cutting stars by machine, but in all of the other photos I found, women were performing the many steps of flag making.
The following photos are from the Brooklyn Navy Yard flag making factory in 1917.
Cutting Stripes
Measuring or Making Sure that Flag Components Line Up Properly
Sewing on Sewing Machines
Sewing by Hand
Ironing
Delivering a Finished Flag to the Office
Between 1917 and 1960, women’s work in flag making doesn’t seem to have changed very much, as seen in this 1960 photo from the Copeland Company factory in Alexandria, Virginia.
Photo by John T. Bledsoe. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Ray and I are excited that we were able to purchase an American-made flag from the Annin Flagmakers. Annin is a sixth generation, family owned flag making business founded in 1847.
An Annin flag flew at the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln and at the opening ceremony of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883.
Commander Robert E. Peary took an Annin flag on his mission to the North Pole in 1909, and Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd took one to the South Pole in 1930.
The flag that U.S. Marines raised at Iwo Jima in 1945 was an Annin flag.
When U.S. astronauts left Earth to become the first people to land on the moon in 1969, they took an Annin flag along with them.
In March 1943 during World War II, photographer Marjory Collins took photos of women making flags at the Annin factory in Verona, New Jersey. Here women position the stars before sewing.
A seamstress uses a sewing machine to sew stripes in this photo.
These ladies are cutting threads.
The Italian American woman who is cutting threads in this close up photo had two sons in the Army.
This lady hems the edge of the flag.
God created and gives the materials for every job we have to do. He gives the intelligence and skill we need to accomplish work. Every person who does every job is a person God made in His image, a person we are to love, appreciate, and encourage.
When someone asked Jesus what was the foremost commandment, . . .
Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is one Lord;
and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:28-31