Betsy Ross: The Flag, the Legend, and What We Actually Know

Many people imagine Betsy Ross creating the first American flag at George Washington's personal request, trimming the stars from a single fold of cloth. It is one of the most beloved stories in American history. It also depends almost fully on the testimony of a single source nearly 100 years after the fact.

Betsy Ross's connection to the first flag was first made public in 1870, when her grandson William Canby presented a paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Canby claimed his grandmother had told him the story privately years before her death in 1836. He gathered accounts from family members who said they, too, had heard the story. There is no official documentation; no receipt, no diary entry, no letter from 1776 that corroborates the account.

This does not mean it didn't happen. It means we cannot confirm that it did. Flag historians have noted that the Continental Congress's Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777 — the first official mention of a national flag names no maker. Francis Hopkinson, a New Jersey delegate who signed the Declaration, filed a bill with Congress in 1780 claiming credit for designing not only the flag but several other national emblems. Congress declined to pay him, citing multiple contributors.

What we do know about Elizabeth 'Betsy' Griscom Ross is genuinely remarkable on its own terms. She was a Quaker upholsterer who married three times, each husband a casualty of the war in some form. She was an independent businesswoman in an era when that was nearly unheard of for women. Her first husband, John Ross, died in a munitions explosion while serving with the militia in January 1776. She continued operating their upholstery shop alone.

It is documented that she made flags and not just the national standard, but signal flags, naval pennants, and regimental colors for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1777. Payment records from the Pennsylvania State Navy Board confirm this. She was a skilled flag maker, a patriot, and was a widow supporting herself by her own hands during the darkest years of the Revolution.

The story her grandson told may be entirely true. The five-pointed star trick of folding cloth to cut a perfect star in one snip is real and actually works. Whether Washington visited her parlor and whether she convinced him to change from six-pointed to five-pointed stars remains unverified.

However, the woman herself was extraordinary before her grandson ever opened his mouth. The flag she may or may not have sewn has flown over a nation that has tried to live up to what it represents.

Sources

Canby, William J. 'The History of the Flag of the United States.' Paper read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, March 1870.

Molotsky, Irvin. The Flag, the Poet, and the Song. New York: Dutton, 2001.

Mastai, Boleslaw, and Marie-Louise D'Otrange Mastai. The Stars and the Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History. New York: Knopf, 1973.

Miller, Marla R. Betsy Ross and the Making of America. New York: Henry Holt, 2010.

Pennsylvania State Navy Board Payment Records, 1777. Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg.