The history and creation of the Maryland flag, an emblem of reconciliation

Among the state flags of the United States there are some with very peculiar designs that deserve considerable attention due to their interest.

The flag of the state of Minnesota, an example of excellent vexillological design
The flags of US states and cities that are inspired by Spanish flags

One of them is the flag of Maryland, a state on the East Coast of the country whose capital is Annapolis, famous for being home to the United States Naval Academy, and whose most populous city is Baltimore. Maryland is one of the thirteen original colonies that formed the United States in 1776. The first European to arrive in Maryland was the Florentine Giovanni da Verrazzano, in the service of the French Crown. The Spaniard Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, governor of Florida, explored that territory in 1572. In 1631, a British merchant, William Claiborne, founded the first permanent settlement in that territory.

The beautiful name Maryland, adopted in 1632, officially evokes Henrietta Maria of France (1609-1669), wife of King Charles I of England. One could say the state's name has a double meaning, since the first thing it evokes is the Virgin Mary. This is no coincidence. The founder of the Maryland colony was the British Catholic nobleman George Calvert, who came to these lands fleeing the discrimination Catholics suffered in his country because of Anglicanism. Henrietta Maria of France was a devout Catholic, and Maryland became the first Catholic colony of the original thirteen US colonies, and was an atypical center of religious tolerance in its time. Today, the Archbishop of Baltimore is the primate of the Catholic Church in the United States, since the first Catholic diocese in the thirteen colonies was established in that city (the Catholic presence in Spanish Florida was much earlier). Currently, 12% of Maryland's population identifies as Catholic.

The first flag of the Province of Maryland during the British colonial period was the personal banner of the colony's founder, George Calvert (above), appointed by the King of England as the first Lord Baltimore. This emblem was a reward for storming a stockade, hence its distinctive shape.

Lord Baltimore's coat of arms was quartered, with the Calvert family crest (his paternal branch) in the first and fourth quarters and the Crossland family crest (his maternal branch), consisting of a trefoil cross, in the second and third quarters. After independence, both Lord Baltimore's banner and his personal coat of arms fell out of use, and the state of Maryland used various flags until the 1890s, generally blue and bearing the state seal, but none of them were official. Lord Baltimore's coat of arms was introduced on the state seal in 1854.

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Maryland's population was divided. The state remained within the Union, but a considerable portion of its population sympathized with the Confederacy. Marylanders who sympathized with the Southern cause began using the Crossland family banner, as well as the colors red and white and the trefoil cross, as distinctive emblems. The use of these symbols became a target of persecution in the state during the war years.

In the 1880s, a flag based on Lord Baltimore's heraldic coat of arms began to gain popularity in Maryland. The flag incorporated the two banners used by supporters of each side in the Civil War: the black and yellow Calvert flag (for Union supporters) and the red and white Crossland flag (for Confederate supporters). This flag was first flown at a Maryland National Guard parade in October 1888, during the dedication of the Maryland monument at the Gettysburg battlefield. In 1889, the Fifth Regiment of the Maryland National Guard became the first state institution to officially adopt that flag. That regiment was the successor to the old Maryland Guard, which had been disbanded during the war when many of its members joined the Confederacy. Many former officers and soldiers of the Confederate Army were part of the regiment, sharing its ranks with those who had been their enemies. It was a step toward reconciliation.

Finally, in 1904, the Maryland General Assembly declared the quartered flag the official state flag, thus symbolizing the process of reconciliation experienced in that state after the Civil War. Today, it is one of the most easily recognizable state flags in the United States, due to its distinctive design. In 1945, the state mandated that it be flown on flagpoles topped with a gold cross. A few days ago, Chris Flag released this video showing the complicated process of making a Maryland flag in the traditional style:

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Images: Openart / Wikipedia.