Flag of Chicago

The flag of Chicago consists of two light blue horizontal stripes on a white field. Each strip has exactly one sixth of the total height of the flag and is just under one-sixth from the top or bottom placed away. Between the two blue stripes four red six-pointed stars are arranged in a horizontal row.

In an online poll of North American Vexillological Association (North American Association for the flag customer) in 2004 was elected the flag of Chicago's second-best all U.S. cities flags by the flag of Washington DC. The voter 's preferred simple but distinctively designed flags over too complex designed flags for example, with lettering or the city seal.

Symbolism

Strip

The three white stripes of the flag represent from top to bottom the north, west and south sides of the city. The top blue stripe represents Lake Michigan and the northern arm of the Chicago River. The bottom blue stripe represents the South Branch of the Chicago River and the Great Canal.

Stars

The four red six-pointed stars in the central white stripe, from left to right (although this is not the order in which they were added to the flag ):

  • The first star represents Fort Dearborn. He was added to the flag as the last star in 1939 and preceded by the other. Its six points symbolize transportation, labor, trade, money, dense population and wholesomeness.
  • The second star is for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and was on the original flag of 1917. Its six points symbolize the virtues of religion, education, aesthetics, justice, beneficence, and civic pride.
  • . The third star symbolizes the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and was also already on the original flag of 1917 Its six points stand for the political entity to which Chicago has heard and whose flags have flown already in Chicago: France 1693, Great Britain 1763, Virginia in 1778, the Northwest Territories in 1798, Indiana territory in 1802 and Illinois in 1818.
  • The fourth star represents the Century of Progress Exposition (1933-1934), and was added in 1933. His rays are for bragging: the third largest city in the United States, Chicago's Latin Motto ( Urbs in horto - City in a Garden ), Chicago's "I Will " motto, the Great Central Marketplace, Wonder City Convention City.

A possible fifth star has been repeatedly suggested.

History

Mayor William Hale Thompson in 1915 appointed a Flag Commission, who was among other things, the impressionist painter Lawton S. Parker. Parker asked the lecturer and poet Wallace Rice to develop rules for a public competition for the best flag design. At the end, the Commission selected the design by Wallace Rice itself, on April 4, 1917, approved its recommendation by the City Council.

1933 Mayor Edward Joseph Kelly of the flag was added in honor of the ongoing World Expo, a third star. 1939 finally was still a fourth star added to commemorate the Fort Dearborn massacre (s). In the summer of 2007, the proposal was to add a fifth star if the city would get awarded the hosting of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Flag of Washington, D.C. Northwest Territory
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