Flag of Idaho

How to read it

The flag is set by Idaho Code § 46-801, part of the militia law of 1927: a silk flag with a blue field, 1.68 metres (5 feet 6 inches) long and 1.32 metres (4 feet 4 inches) on the pole, with gilt fringe 6.4 cm (2½ inches) wide. The state seal, 53 cm (21 inches) across, in colour, sits in the centre. Below it, about 22 cm (8½ inches) above the lower fringe, the words “State of Idaho” are embroidered in block letters 5 cm (2 inches) high on a red band 7.6 cm (3 inches) wide and 74 cm (29 inches) long. The seal is the one drawn by Emma Edwards of Boise City, with the motto “Esto Perpetua” (the state motto), adopted under Idaho Code § 59-1005; the Idaho Capitol Commission says the legislature adopted it on 14 March 1891 and that it is the only state seal designed by a woman.

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From the 1907 flag to the 1927 law

The Idaho State Historical Society says a state flag with the state’s name on a blue field was adopted by an act of 12 March 1907, which left the adjutant general to set the dimensions and lettering. The flag made for him met most of his specifications, but its seal was only the picture from the centre of the seal, without the words “Great Seal of the State of Idaho”, and only roughly like it. That flag is now kept by the Historical Society. When the legislature rewrote the militia law on 15 March 1927 it copied the adjutant general’s 1907 specifications word for word, and from then on the law required the full seal on the flag. A standard coloured version of the seal, adopted in 1957, fixed how that part of the flag looks.

Telling it from Montana’s flag

Both are blue with a seal in the centre. Montana’s flag has MONTANA in gold letters above its seal; Idaho’s has its name below the seal, STATE OF IDAHO on a red band. Oregon’s flag is also blue, but everything on it, the words STATE OF OREGON above the shield and 1859 below, is gold.