State Flags

All the 50 States in the U.S. have separate and distinct flags, apart from the national flag. The flags of the U.S. states exhibit a wide variety of regional influences and local histories, as well as widely different styles and design principles. Modern state flags date from the 1890s when states wanted to have distinctive symbols at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Most state flags were designed and adopted between 1893 and World War I. About half the flags have a common “seal on a bed sheet” design, wherein the state seal is simply put on a solid, usually blue, background.

All 50 States display the red, white, and blue colors of the U.S. Flag, while ‘State Flags’ represent each individual state, separating it apart from the others. Individual State Flags also express that each state is sovereign, in that it governs itself and may have different rules and laws than other 49 states. The oldest flags in the nation are those of Maryland and Rhode Island. Oregon is the only state that has a two-sided flag, featuring the state seal on the front side and the state’s official animal — the beaver — on the backside. The most recently changed flag was the Mississippi Flag, the change was approved by state referendum on November 3, 2020.

Click on any State Flag below for more info about that flag.