Flag of Iowa

How to read it

Iowa Code § 1B.1 adopts as the state flag the banner designed by the Iowa society of the Daughters of the American Revolution: three vertical stripes of blue, white and red, blue nearest the staff and white in the centre, with a spreading eagle on the white bearing blue streamers inscribed in white letters with the motto, and the word “Iowa” in red letters below. The code gives no proportions or shades; its editor’s note says that on the original design the white stripe was about as wide as the other two together. Flown with the national flag, the state flag goes beneath it (§ 1B.2), and the custodians of public buildings raise both flags on each secular day when the weather allows (§ 1B.3). The General Assembly adopted the design on 29 March 1921 as the “State Banner”, the Iowa Official Register of 1957–1958 says. The motto is the one on the eagle’s scroll on the Great Seal of Iowa.

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Telling it from the French flag

France’s flag has the same colours in the same order, blue at the staff, white in the middle and red at the fly, as the French National Convention’s decree of 15 February 1794 set them. Iowa’s has an eagle and the name IOWA on the white, and on the original design its white stripe is about as wide as the blue and red together.

Why Iowa waited until 1921

Many Iowans, with the Civil War still in memory, felt that only a national flag was needed, the Iowa Legislature’s fact sheet says. The push came in the First World War, from Iowa National Guardsmen stationed on the Mexican border, who said regiments from other states had flags and they needed one for their unit. The Daughters of the American Revolution designed one in 1917.