Iowa State Flag
Iowa was almost 75 years old before the state
banner was adopted. Creation of a state banner had been suggested
for years by patriotic organizations, but no action was taken
until World War I, when Iowa National Guardsmen stationed along
the Mexican border suggested a state banner was needed. The
Guardsmen said regiments from other states had banners and they
felt one was needed to designate their unit. This prompted the
state's Daughters of the American Revolution to design a banner
in 1917. The Legislature officially adopted the design in 1921.
Iowans, with the memory of the Civil War still fresh in their
minds, had not adopted a state banner because they felt a
national banner was the only one needed. Approval of the banner
was aided by patriotic organizations that launched a campaign to
explain that a state banner was not meant to take the place of
the national emblem.
The banner, designed by Mrs. Dixie Cornell Gebhardt of Knoxville
and a member of the D.A.R., consists of three vertical stripes of
blue, white and red. Gebhardt explained that the blue stands for
loyalty, justice, and truth; the white for purity; and the red
for courage. On the white center stripe is an eagle carrying in
its beak blue streamers inscribed with the state motto, "Our
liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain." The
word Iowa is in red letters just below the streamers.
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Image from Art Explosion 600,000.
