Flag of Maryland


The official flag of the state of Maryland is the 17th-century heraldic banner of arms of Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. It consists of the escutcheon of his father George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, with the charges and fields from his coat of arms quartered with those of his grandmother, heiress of the Crossland family in the Kingdom of England. The flag was officially adopted by the General Assembly of Maryland in 1904.
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Current design

The banner of arms of the Barons Baltimore, the present flag, is a quartered field with the arms of George Calvert in the canton and the lower fly, with the arms of Alicia Crossland in the upper fly and lower hoist.
In the black and gold quarters of the flag is the arms of George Calvert, former Secretary of State the 1st Baron Baltimore, granted as a reward for his storming a fortification during a battle. The red and white quarter is the coat of arms of the Crossland family, the family of Lord Baltimore's mother from South Crosland in West Yorkshire, England, and consists of a cross bottony with the red and white sides of the cross alternating. Since George Calvert's mother was a heraldic heiress, he was entitled to use both arms in his banner of arms. On George Calvert's death in 1632, the right to bear the arms and banner passed to his eldest son Cecil, to whom the Province of Maryland was granted that same year.
The heraldic blazon is: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, paly of six Or and Sable, a bend counterchanged ; 2nd and 3rd, quarterly argent and gules, a cross bottony counterchanged.

Previous design

The first Maryland flag design consisted of the seal of Maryland on a blue background, similar to many other state flags. This blue flag was flown until the late 1890s.

History

The Maryland colony was founded by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, which was granted to him as George Calvert's son and heir by King Charles I, hence the use of his banner of arms as the flag. During the colonial period, only the gold and black Calvert arms were associated with Maryland. The state stopped using the colors following American independence, but they were reintroduced in 1854.
The red and white cross bottony counterchanged had gained popularity during the American Civil War. Maryland had remained with the Union despite a large proportion of the citizenry's support for the Confederacy, especially in the central city of Baltimore, the counties of the southern part of the state, and the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Those Marylanders who supported the Confederacy, many of whom fought in the Army of Northern Virginia of Robert E. Lee, adopted the Crossland banner and often used a metal bottony cross pinned to their gray uniforms or caps. The black and gold bend dexter counterchanged of the Barons Baltimore was used in the flags and devices and pinned on the uniforms of Union Army regiments in the Army of the Potomac. After the war, Marylanders who had fought on either side of the conflict returned to their state in need of reconciliation.
The present design, which incorporates both of the coats of arms used by George Calvert, began to appear officially after the Civil War. The flag in its present form was first flown in Baltimore, on October 11, 1880, at a parade marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Baltimore. It was flown again on October 25, 1888, at the Gettysburg Battlefield during ceremonies dedicating monuments to the Maryland regiments of the Army of the Potomac by reorganized regiments of the former state militia, now the Maryland National Guard.
The flag was not officially adopted as the state flag until 1904. The present flag is symbolic of the reunion of all the citizens in the state and is represented through the colors of the flag.
In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association placed Maryland's flag fourth best in design quality out of the 72 flags of the Provinces of Canada, the U.S. states, and the territories of the United States. It finished behind the flags of New Mexico, Texas and Quebec respectively.

Uses

The Calvert and Crossland arms and banner, and the Maryland flag itself, have been adapted for use in various ways across the state.

Official

Section 7-202 of the General Provisions Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland provides:
" The State flag is divided into quarters.
The first and fourth quarters are a paly of six pieces, or and sable
, and a bend dexter counterchanged so that they consist
of six alternating gold and black vertical bars with a diagonal band on which the colors
are reversed.
The second and third quarters are quartered argent and gules, a
cross bottony counterchanged so that they consist of a quartered field of white and red,
charged with a Greek cross that has arms terminating in trefoils and opposite coloring
so that red is on the white quarters and white is on the red quarters, as represented on
the escutcheon of the State seal."
The Maryland
Secretary of State publishes a "Protocol for the Maryland State Flag" which, among other things, specifies the colors of the flag:
1.04. The red and yellow colors in the Maryland flag should conform to the following Pantone Matching System colors:
Maryland is the only state in the union that has a specific guideline not only on how to display the flag but on what the flagpole should look like as well. In 1945, the Maryland General Assembly made a gold cross bottony the official ornament for the top of any flagpole carrying the state flag. Sometime before October 10, 2007, Government House in Annapolis ceased to display the cross bottony at the top of the flag pole, but the flags at the State House continue to do so. In March 2015, the gold cross bottony was put back on top of the flag pole on Government House. All other state government buildings, including public schools, obey this guideline, but many private individuals and businesses do not.