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Six flags over Texas [1] (also six flags of Texas,[2][3] or Texas under six flags[4][5]) symbolize of the history of Texas by the flags of six independent nations which have claimed sovereignty over much or all of its territory; these, and the conventional dates[n 1] of their sovereignty, are Imperial Spain (1519–1685, 1690–1821), Bourbon France (1685–1690), Mexico (1821–1836), the Republic of Texas (1836–1845), the Confederate States of America (1861–1865), and the United States of America (1845–1861, 1865–present). The symbol has been used with pride by Texans,[8] where sets of six flags are flown on public and private property and in parades, and associated imagery found on buildings and in print. The image of six flags dates from[citation needed] the 1897 popular history textbook Under Six Flags; the Story of Texas by Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis.[4]
In 1997 the Texas Historical Commission adopted standard designs recommended for all six flags, with the aim of ending previous variations. All six nations had multiple flag designs in the course of their respective periods of sovereignty; in addition, the modern flags of Mexico, France, and/or Spain have been anachronistically included in displays. Six-flag displays are also affected by ongoing controversy over modern display of Confederate symbols.
Nation | Period | Texas Historical Commission 1997[9] | Davis 1897[10] | Giant (1956 film)[11] | Reverse of the Seal of Texas[12] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spanish Empire | 1519–1685, 1690–1821 | ![]() |
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White, possibly as Davis 1897 | ![]() |
Kingdom of France | 1685–1690 | ![]() |
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First Mexican Empire/First Mexican Republic | 1821–1836 | ![]() |
Upright, right-facing eagle | ![]() | |
Republic of Texas | 1836–1846 | ![]() |
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Confederate States of America | 1861–1865 | ![]() |
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Stars and Bars, unsure how many stars | Stars and Bars with six outer and one center star |
United States of America | 1846–1861, 1865–present | ![]() |
Not illustrated | ![]() |
Bullock Museum follows THC except noting "The royal banner of Castile and León ... is most frequently seen in displays of the Six Flags of Texas in spite of the fact that its usage in Spain ended three years prior to the Spanish claim of Texas."[13] And its picture of the flag is not : (1) instead of the arms of Castile
it has the arms of Spain
; (2) in the arms of León
the lion is passant instead of rampant and tenné instead of purpure
The United States flag is usually shown with its current number of stars; however, the state seal design uses 28 stars, the number after Texas' accession to the union, so that it need not be updated if new states impel a new flag. (The 1961 design had 48 stars as it predated Alaska 49 even though not introduced till after Hawaii 50.) The 28-star version is also in this modern photo on a blog; no indication of where it was taken.
The Alamo Museum as of 2020 flew blue Fra, quartered Spn, 7-circle CSA, 28-star USA.[14]
The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills curriculum for social studies includes an expectation that Grade 4 students can "Explain the meaning of various patriotic symbols and landmarks of Texas, including the six flags that flew over Texas, the Alamo, and the San Jacinto Monument."[15]
The 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas used various flags; the most official were probably those flown at the entrance gate, but souvenirs and official ephemera (tickets, posters, postcards, pamphlets, etc.) used differing versions.
"Upon entering the “Texanic” Great Hall, visitors passed the flags of Spain, Mexico and Texas displayed from wall mountings on their left and those of the United States, the Confederacy and France on their right. ... huge, gold medallion at the head of the Great Hall, where a lone star was surrounded by the personified female forms of the sovereignties"[18] Two-row configuration 'allow[s] for a “dual allegiance” to the United States and Texas in the final position.'[19]
Fair Park had "myriad and ubiquitous iterations of the Six Flags motif".[20]
Tom Connally at 1935 hearings into federal support:[21]
Texas Centennial half dollar has the six flags, but just abstract billows with no identifying detail.[22]
Texas State Capitol 1935 renovation added six seals (not flags) on the floor of the rotunda Between points of lone star in order are "Kingdom of S."~"Kingdom of F."~"Republic of M."~"CSofA"~"USofA" with "Rep of T" in the center.[23]
1936 Adolphus Hotel display, blue field + 3 white fleurdelys; white field + crowned shield with chain and ribbons; 7-circle CSA[24] "Few countries and no other state since the days when Nero ruled Rome have given allegiance to six flags. ... Texas' history begins in 1684 when La Salle was granted permission..."
1936 Women's Benefit Association color guard has plain fleurdelys, red quarters, and battle flag.[25]
Theme of 1936 Sugar Bowl was six flags over Texas.[26]
There were six porticos around the reflecting pool on the Esplanade of State in the Fair Park, each with a 20-foot statute representing one of the six nations (Left Spain, the Confederacy, Texas; right France, Mexico, and the United States.)[27]
The opening ceremonies on June 6 had multiple references to the six flags. At the "Pageant of the flags" in the Cotton Bowl (stadium), each of the six nations had a representative who made a short address (mostly from elsewhere via live radio, a technological innovation) followed by the U.S. Marine Band playing its anthem. The speakers were:[28]
Each national flag was raised as its anthem played; when The Star-Spangled Banner played "Old Glory rose slowly in the air while the five other symbols of sovereignty descended slowly in deference to the ruling flag."[29] [Grainy wideview photo of pageant in Wiley's book[30]]
The Texas Negro Under Six Flags[32] cover has modern Fra; oval-seal tricolor Spn; upright-eagle Mex; bloodstained banner CSA. A "did you know" list of historical facts includes:
"Great Medallion of Texas" by Joseph Emile Renier in the Hall of State has six personifications holding shields.
C.D. Reimers' cachets for the centennial postage stamp featured the six flags, with red-quartered, plain-white, 7-circle, 48-star.[33]
Rotary District Conference may use official logo or own similar.[34]
Postcard "I am sending you the key" JT & LO Johnson: blue+3 Fra; white+red/gold+ribbons Spn; Battle CSA; straight Mex[35]
"Texas Under Six Flags" folk festival and pageant in Fort Worth beginning April 18[36]
The Spanish flag was supposedly based on Cortés' but the description is...:[16]
...whereas other descriptions of Cortes' banner (now on display in Chapultepec Castle) just show the image of the Virgin.[37] OTOH a contemporary painting shows red banners, one with a quartered shield in the center.
Interestingly, the Federal Government's exhibit at the fair included "such priceless documents as the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, the Florida Purchase Treaty and the Joint Resolution of Congress of 1845 annexing the Republic of Texas to the Union."[38] The dates of the two treaties do not align with the conventional dates of the six flags.
Olmstead on Frontier Centennial in Fort Worth:[39]
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) operates Texas Travel Information Centers at main routes into the state.[40] These flew the six flags until June 2020, when all but the U.S. flag were withdrawn temporarily; the following month, the Texas flag alone was restored.[41] TxDOT justified the change both as a cost saving and "in the spirit of welcoming everyone to Texas".[41]
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies fourth grade "Citizenship" includes:[42]
The 1998 text read:[43]
(The Alamo was in the first grade curriculum in 2000.)
In the late 1920s, Hardin–Simmons University's annual cowboy parade through Stamford began featuring flagbearers riding white horses: initially two, with U.S. and Texas flags, but soon increased to six women, with the six flags (USA left, Tex right), including the CSA's Stars-and-Bars.[62][63]
1844-6: U.S debates on the legitimacy of the annexation of Texas as casus belli of the Mexican–American War hinged on whether the Louisiana Purchase included Texas and whether the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty ceded Texas to Spain before or after Mexican independence
Nicholas Descomps Labadie, 1858:[90]
Late 19th–early 20th century is when the six flags "became popular as graphic symbols", along with the bluebonnet flower and Texas Longhorn steer.[91]
1883: Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly:[92]
1884: Mary Sherwood Helm (widow of Elias R. Wightman):[93] It may not be amiss to say that Texas has experienced many changes in her Political Government:
1889 Hubert Howe Bancroft: "No state in the Union has passed through more political vicissitudes than Texas. During the present century her people have fought and bled under no less than five different national flags, representing as many different governments."[94]
Davis 1897 was a "popular state history textbook".[95]
Dudley G. Wooten's 1898 Comprehensive History of Texas 1685 to 1897 has two relevant parts:
1900: Adina Emilia de Zavala (1861–1955) The Six National Flags That Have Floated Over Texas playlet. She "wrote pamphlets about Texas history and popularized the fact that Texas had flown under six flags".[98] [unreliable source] Later influenced San Antonio Conservation Society's six-flags idea. This neo-Confederate blog asserts "The origin of the six flags flown over Texas motto was created by the savior of the Alamo, Adina de Zavala to explain our state’s complex cultural diversity." Does any more reputable source make such a claim?
1900 St. Louis Globe-Democrat:[99]
1907, John Rose Ficklen:[100]
1907: postcard of the Alamo with added flags; Spn (yellow field) and Fra (yellow escutcheon) colors may be unreliable; CSA battle flag.
1909: Banquet for President William Howard Taft at the Oriental Hotel Dallas has "Texas under six flags" theme, with Battle flag CSA and File:BandMercante1785.svg Spain.[101]
1910:[102] [1645 may be a typo for 1685]
1911: at the unveiling of Pompeo Coppini's monument at Sam Houston's gravesite, the stands were "draped with . . . the six flags under which Texas was governed--French, Spanish, Mexican, Texas Republic, Confederate and the United States . . . They furnished much evidence of the rich and glorious history of this grand territory."[103]
1910s: Ella E. Lane. "Queen of Texas in Texas Under Six Flags" at the Flato Opera House, Kingsville[104] which operated 1911–1918.[105]
1914: Six women in a parade carrying flags, possibly in Kingsville.[106]
1916: Nevin O. Winter:
1918: crest of the 359th Infantry Texas Brigade in World War I has modern Fra/Spn/Mex and Battle Flag CSA[108][109]
15 June 1920: Baylor, the Deliverer, a student pageant marking the 75th anniversary of Baylor University, featured a "Wheel of Time, whose spokes were composed of the flags of France, Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States".[110]
1921 Rotary school pageant "Centennial of the founding of the first Anglo-Saxon colony by Stephen F. Austin". Like some other sources, the history starts with France 1685 ignoring earlier Spanish explorers.[111] Finesses CSA by putting Texas entering the union after Civil War skit.[112]
1924: Oscar F. Holcombe: 1684-90, 1690-1821, 1821-36, 1836-46, 1846-61, 1861-61, 1865-present[113]
1926: Emily Edwards' map of San Antonio has six crests at edges; date are 1528-1541 + 1685-1821 Spn; 1685-1721 Fra; 1821-1836 Mex; 1836-1846 RTx; 1861-1865 CSA; 1846-61, 1865- USA.[114]
1929: Dallas Rotary dance:
1932: Carlos Castañeda's Columbus Day address to the Knights of Columbus (printed in 1933, reprinted in 1999) just a potted history; does not describe flags, does give start and end dates for some.
1932: The "Temple to the Brave" in Beaumont was opened by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution commemorating "all Texans who have served in all wars"; it has six stained glass windows for the six flags. Their inscriptions are "1685; La Salle in Matagorda Bay"; "1689; Alonzo De Leon"; "1824; Abdication Of Iturbide"; "1836; Santa Anna before Sam Houston"; "Lt. Dick Dowling; Texas under the Confederacy"; "1865; The Progress of Civilization".[116]
1930-70: Alamo postcard with blue+3 Fra; gold-ribbons Spn; Stainless banner CSA.[117]
1933: start dates per nation of 1685, 1783 [? recte 1763 ?], 1821, 1836, 1845, 1861, 1865.[118]
1935 Robert Emmett Pellow:[119]
1936: Texas Was Mine pageant after the six flags has an Indian saying:[120]
1937 Main Building (University of Texas at Austin) opens; library reading room (now the science library) had six nations' coats of arms and declarations by monarchs (Charles V to the Diet of Worms for Spain; Louis XIV "les rois sont seigneurs absolus..." for France) or of independence.[121]
1936–9: The base of the San Jacinto Monument has bronze doors into the internal museum, theater and elevator space, each with six panels with bas-relief of the six flags of Texas: France fdl semé; Spn red quarters; CSA battle.[122] Monument's website has two different French designs, and shows 7-circle rather than battle-flag of doors.[123]
1951: San Antonio Conservation Society (SACS) had a plan to preserve one historic building for each of the six flags. The Spanish Governor's Palace would represent Spain; the Guilbeau House [French-style 1840s-built], France; Haymarket Plaza, later replaced by Casa Navarro, Mexico; Alamo Mission, Texas; Vance House, CSA; Arsenal, USA. Guilbeau and Vance Houses torn down in 1952 regardless; Vance replaced Eager, then Devine House some Arsenal buildings preserved in use. But "Texas Under Six Flags" theme spread round San Antonio in 1953.[124] SACS' 1950s adoption of the six-flags theme is credited as influential in a review of Fisher's book.[125]
1952: Giant (novel by Edna Ferber); a 1920s Maryland socialite arrives in Texas as a newlywed:
1956: in the film adaptation of Giant, Bick takes the Texas flag out of his six-flag display and hands it to old Angel at the military funeral of young Angel, symbolically accepting them as full Texans rather than mere Mexican wetbacks.
Texas Almanac 1956[128]
1958 DAR magazine history article named the six flags of Texas, only describes France lilies and Spain colourful
1958: Dallas Memorial Auditorium has plain fleurdelys, red quarters, and 7-circle[129]
1961: Six Flags Over Texas has 7-circle CSA; upright-eagle Mex; plain-fleurdelys Fra; Castile-y-Leon Spn.[130] Park lore holds that it was to have been named "Texas Under Six Flags" till a stakeholder — accounts vary as to who — complained that Texas had never been "under" anything.[131] In 1961, entrance to Confederate zone had both Star-and-Bars and Battle Flag.[132] "Six historical flags of Texas" has in a line with U.S. higher, and red quarters;[133] presumably slightly later picture at "dancing waters" has pied quarters flying but still red on logo.[134]
1961 Texas Almanac has full discussion of which flags.[135] This is largely replicated on Texas House of Representatives website.[136]
1962: Cover of the LP The Fifty Guitars of Tommy Garrett: Six Flags over Texas had red-quarter Spn and plain-gold France.
1964: Gilbert says "While additional Southern states soon joined the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars as originally designed, with its seven stars representing the first seven states to secede, remained in favor."[137]
1965: schoolbook gives six flags plus Indian flag: "The Indian flag was usually made from a deerskin. Since the Indians worshiped the sun, it was always painted on the flag." "Every Texan should be able to recognize the six flags of Texas and the Indian flag." Blue + white France but mentions white + gold, Quartered Spain but mentions "other two", CSA both 7-circle and battle.[138]
1970: Six Flags Mall, apparently named after amusement park rather than flags themselves, opens with six flags flying over its man entrance which are simply colored banners with store names, not national flags.[139]
1971: Postcard of the Alamo interior shows mostly-ref quarters Spn, plain white Fra, battle flag CSA.[140]
1970s: amusement park flags same in 1973 as 1961;[141] another photo might have more stars in CSA flag[142]
1973: Victoria, Texas Trail of the Six Flags Monument dedicated in 1962 had USA-CSA (7-circle)-Tex-Mex-Fra [plain white)-Spn (chequer quarter).[143]. Google Street View since 2008 shows blue+3 Fra and order US-Tex-CSA-Mex-Spn-Fra[144]
1982: Conquistador ride at Six Flags Over Texas had both quarter and white-field Spanish flags.[101]
1986: float in League City Village Fest parade; the parade is part of the 32nd Annual Village Fest: C-y-L Spain, 7-circle CSA, plain France.[145]
1986: reused 1936 post for sesquicentennial (CSA is 7-circle but hard to make out)[146]
Before 1992: Alamo has Spn, blue Fra, 7-circle CSA.[147]
1991: Texas Legislative Council book has seals with dates as follows: Spn 1519-1821, Fra 1685-1762 [presumably the Treaty of Fontainebleau], Mex 1821-36, Tex 1836-45, "Confederacy" 1861-5, USA 1845-61,65-present.[148]
1992: French claim doubtful[149]
At some point, a "Six Flags Over Texas Monument" was built in Navasota, jointly funded by the city and the Foundation supporting the nearby Washington-on-the-Brazos Historical Site.[150]
2000: Bullock Museum upon opening includes in plaza[151]
2001: the six flags were being flown at the University of Texas at Austin during freshman week and spring graduation.[152]
2001: Maberry suggests CSA stars-n-Bars should use 11-star, not 7-star, version since true for longer[153]
2001–2013: Alamo has quarters, blue, 7-circle.[154]
Monument Square in Galveston, with Texas Heroes Monument in its center, has six flags at one corner.[155] Monument is from 1900 but flag corner looks relatively recent. (Though Google Maps 2007 shows it)
2008: Six seals on Capitol's Christmas ornament; Nadine Craddick, wife of House Speaker Tom Craddick, said at unveiling "The six flags of Texas are a symbol of the great historic drama that is Texas History."[156]
June 2018: State Board of Education clarifies that kindergarten students need only identify the US and state flag, not all six "flags of Texas".[157]
2016 Hannah Thurston:[158]
2016: University of Texas at Austin educational resource has 11-star Stars-n-Bars and 27-Star US flag (post-1785 Spn, plan gold Fra, realistic eagle Mex)[159]
2020: TSLAC includes six-flags photos among videoconferencing backgrounds[160]
2021: "Six flags over Texas" panel included in "Kids' Guide" poster.[161]
Bacilio Benavides (1800-1863) had "the distinction of having lived under six flags of national sovereignty, one more than his nephew, Santos" (1823–1891).[162] I think Riley's "six flags" include the 1840 Republic of the Rio Grande rather than France, with Santos missing only Spain.
"Some areas of the state recognize more than six flags, including the flags of the Fredonian Republic, Long Republic, and Republic of the Rio Grande, all of which represent regionally recognized efforts to break free of Mexican governance."[180]
1930 Clarence Wharton's five-volume history, Texas Under Many Flags; doesn't enumerate the flags.[181]
Fort Worth Press 1936 article:[182]
"Though it is accepted universally as a fact that Texas has had six flags, by actual count Texas has had at least three times that number, and probably many more." [lists 19][183]
1961 almanac distinguishes the six sovereigns from two other types: revolutionary banners against Spain and against Mexico.[135]
"Nine Flags of Nacogdoches"[184]
"In Laredo, It's Seven Flags Over Texas" (1840 Flag of the Republic of the Rio Grande).[185]
Walraven, Bill (4 May 1979). "Six, seven, or maybe a dozen flags over Texas". Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
'a Texas-specific version of a familiar “progress of civilization” narrative of American development'.[190]
Texas flag code says Texas flag should be to the left of all except US flag,[191] but many displays put Texas at right
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