WASHINGTON, Maine — Begin with a simple, but essential fact: Dave Martucci loves flags.
Perhaps its because he lives in Washington, Maine. But Martucci, former president of the American Vexillological Society— vexillology is the study of flags—says flags have remarkable stories to tell.
"The fact that humans feel a need to make and have flags is a fascinating subject," he said.
That includes the topic of changing Maine's current state flag back to the 10-1 flag, with the pine tree and star—the first state flag Maine ever had.
"The state flag concept didn’t exist before that [1901]," Martucci said.
And that’s just the beginning.
"When the U.S. became a country in 1776, the concept of a national flag didn’t even exist. Kings and armies had flags; nations didn’t have flags. Nations didn’t, people didn’t, that wasn’t known."
Early U.S. flags, like the so-called Betsy Ross 13-star flag of the Revolutionary War era, were unusual—although that flag was also used for the Continental Army.
"There were different flags for the Continental Army, Washington tried to standardize those, but not 'til the war was over. And it wasn’t until the French Revolution that the French said we want a flag like the United States, a national flag," Martucci explained.
He said the famous British flag of that era—the Union Jack—was a flag of the British crown, not of the country.
"But our flag was really the first one to be identified with the movement of people rather than a royal or military situation."
Meaning, he says, that the U.S. flag was the first in the world to represent a whole country.
"The very first," Martucci said.
From the time Maine became a state in 1820 until 1901, the state had no official flag. There were flags for the militia, used by Maine units in the Civil War when blue flags with the state seal or coat of arms were common.
The Maine Legislature decided in 1901 it was time to have a state flag and initially voted to use that militia flag—blue with the coat of arms.
But the state’s adjutant general decided it should be changed, to make it simpler to make and more quickly recognized.
General Richards designed the pine tree and star flag, and the Legislature agreed.
Then, in 1909, as a way to honor aging Civil War veterans, the Legislature reversed course as decreed that the state flag should, in fact, be blue with the coat of arms or state seal—basically the flag Maine still has today.
Now, the movement has begin to change back to the original flag, with the North Star and the pine tree. Simple and distinctive, Martucci says, who has advocated for the change for years.
He also says Maine should not get too worried about exactly how that flag should look.
"The state law being proposed is exactly the same as the 1901 law, and says it will be a buff flag with a pine tree in the center and a blue star on the left by the hoist. That’s it," Martucci smiled.
He says there are close to a dozen different tree designs already in use by various flagmakers across Maine and in the country. The idea of the pine tree flag seems to have caught on. Beyond that, says the flag expert, keep things as they were in 1901, and let people decide for themselves.