In vietnam. And earned a masters degree in history from George Washington university in 1971. He currently lives in middleburg, virginia. And is a member of the library of Virginia Foundation board. He has been a former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly in washington, d. C. He has written for Many National newspapers and magazines, among many others, the smithsonian, the washington post, the New York Times, baltimore sun, chicago tribune, and the Christian Science monitor and usa today. He is the author of five books, including the one that hell be speaking on today, including, saving monticello, published by the free press in 2001. A book that received excellent reviews and offered the First Complete postjefferson history of this american icon. The book reveals an amazing story how one jewish family saved monticello for posterity and used the house as a family home for 89 years, which is longer than the tenure of the jeffersons at monticello. Mr. Leepsons newest book is flag an american biography. This leepsons tribute to the flag debunks longstanding myths and reinforces proud historical narratives from a nation that at its conception needed a commanding emblem that was both unifying and representational. At the conclusion im sure hell entertain questions from the audience. And i will circulate with a microphone to get those questions because we also have a special guest today, which is cspan, so marc will call on you. I will bring you the microphone, and well make sure that your questions are preserved for posterity or how long videotape lasts. [laughter] i also wanted to quickly mention after our time here you can go and purchase a copy of flag or saving monticello in the library shop. And mr. Leepson will be available to sign both or either of them for you. So without further ado here is marc leepson. [applause] marc thank you very much for coming. Thank you, greg, for that good introduction and thank you for reading it just as i wrote it. [laughter] im going to talk a little bit about this book i wrote about the American Flag. And im going to kind of give you a little bit of history of u. S. Flag 101 today in about a half hour. And of course ill just be able to skip over the highlights. We will have time for questions. When i was setting out to write this book, i kind of knew in my heart that americans had a special feeling for our flag. But i wanted to confirm that. So i interviewed all the flag experts. I read all the books that i could. I even got to talk to people in other countries. Universally, people have told me, and i have come to believe and i think its true, americans do have a special and unique feeling for the flag. Let me just illustrate that in a couple of ways. Number one, think about that now. No other nation in the world has any of the following, or anything close to the following things im going to list, much less all of them. No other nation in the world has its children pledge allegiance to their flag every morning, every school morning, and not just children, of course. Congress has done it in the house, since 1988 and in the senate, since 1989. 1999. And lots of other legislative bodies do it. That has been in effect, the pledge of allegiance was written in 1892. Our national anthem, star spangled banner, do you know what our National March is by order of congress . The stars and stripes forever by john philips sousa. We have the u. S. Flag code, 10 sections in the u. S. Code has been since 1942, long detailed set of guidelines as to how our flag is to be used and displayed and the proper manner for everything having to do with the flag. We have flag groups. We have had lobbying groups for the flag, ever since the 1890s. We have had the u. S. Flag association, the American Flag association, and several others that have worked to foster a feeling for the flag, to foster patriotism. To foster proper use of the flag. What i find interesting given all of that this is not to sleight any other country, because people in other countries do love their flag. But no one even comes close to our flag codes, in other countries. I found one in new zealand and one in ireland, but nothing like we have. Of course we display the flag. You dont have to tell anybody, how americans when people come over here from other countries, they often comment about how much the American Flag is in evidence everywhere. The irony to me is that, given how americans feel about the flag, the history of the flag, especially the early history of the flag, is filled with myth and misinformation. I said it before, its a little bit of an exaggeration, but just about everything you think you know, everything i thought i knew, about the early history of the American Flag is either not true or a great exaggeration. For instance, lets go back to the colors of the flag, the stars, and the stripes. We dont know where the colors came from. We dont know where the stars came from. We dont know where the stripes came from. We dont know who designed the first American Flag and, im sorry to say, we dont know who made the first American Flag. Right . [laughter] if you go back to the june 14, 1777. Rick you have to laugh more. [laughter] if you go back to june 14, 1777 and you read in the annals of the Continental Congress, the first flag resolution, its just one sentence. One long sentence in the annals. Resolved that the nations flag shall be 13 stars white on a field of blue as in a constellation and 13 stripes alternate red and white. Hats it we do not who introduced it we dont know if there was a flag committee. We dont know if there was any debate. And we do know that Congress Approved it and that was it. They went on to something else. We have ideas about all these things but we dont have any primary source documents, none whatsoever. No letters, no diary entries, no contemporary newspaper articles, and nothing, certainly Nothing Official outside of that one sentence in the annals of the Continental Congress to give us a hint about any of these things. I think maybe you might say, well, i know what the colors stand for, i have heard that, red stands for the blood i shed. I know you have all heard that. That comes from something that a man named Charles Thompson who was the secretary of the Continental Congress, who was also the designer of the great seal of the United States, which if you think about it has red, white, and blue. And thompson was speaking of the great seal, when he gave that speech about the meaning of the colors. And that has although he did say the meaning of the colors of the great seal as in the American Flag, are such and such. Thats not official. Its never been anything official. Yet its come down over the generations as people of meanings of it. The colors, we dont know for sure where they came from but we can take an educated guess. And one of the things is the first hint about the colors is the colors of this flag. Its the union jack. We know what three colors are on there. And then the first American Flag, which predated the stars and stripes with this flag right here, which was raised by George Washington on june 1, 1776 outside of boston. This is whats called the continental colors. Its when he started the continental army, the official start of the continental army. Its the union jack and the 13 red and white stripes. Historians believe without any further evidence that the red, white and blue come from the union jack. It was on the continental colors. The stars, the best guess is that well, i think for for millennia, stars have been a symbol for striving for greatness. That is probably one thing. And the other thing is, stars have a very important part in masonic iconography. And we know that nearly all of our Founding Fathers were masons. The stripes, we dont know. Maybe the dutch flag has three stripes. And the dutch own part of these colonies, so they could possibly be that. Lets talk about betsy ross for a minute. Because almost the first question the book came out on flag day. Ive done several radio and tv and newspaper interviews. Almost the first question, especially from tv people, what, betsy ross didnt make the first flag . And the answer to that question is that we dont know. Theres no primary source. Theres no good historical evidence that she did. Now in her defense, the woman who is known at the the time as elizabeth claypool, she was married three times and widowed three times. She did make flags in philadelphia, on arch street, where the betsy ross house is. Although it might not be the house. [laughter] the streets were renumbered in the philadelphia, and they never she never owned the house, so the records are unclear. It might be the house next door. But it was close by. She did make flags on arch street. She did make continental colors so there are records of that. On the other hand, there are 17 other flag makers in philadelphia at the time. Like i said, about all the other theres no contemporary evidence whatsoever that she made the flag. And do you know when the nation found out that betsy ross was the maker of the first flag . 1870. Thats right. Almost 100 years later the occasion was her grandson, william canby, he announced that at a press conference at the Historical Society in philadelphia, that his grandmother made the flag. And he had evidence. But his evidence was family history. It was affidavits from his grandmother and greataunt that betsy made the flag. The analogy i use is historians , look at family stories as the least reliable historical evidence. Think about it. Remember the kids game of telephone. Where 10 of us were in a circle and you said something and it came out different on the other end. Well, think about 100 years later and what can happen. Still, you know, family members, you know still stay she made the flag. They also referred to the betsy ross legend. If you go to the betsy ross house they do speak of it as the , story is told or the legend is told. A little later on, im going to go over briefly over some of the reasons behind the reasons why the betsy ross myth took hold in the 1870s and Even Stronger in the 1890s. I know what youre thinking right now when youre picturing betsy ross. Shes sitting in the parlor with the flag on her lap and George Washington and two other people. Some people are thinking that. Rick is thinking that. [laughter] that painting was completely fanciful. It was painted in 1892. Well get to that in a minute. Well, who designed the first American Flag . As part of the betsy ross story is George Washington came to her. He was a little busy at the time running the revolution. [laughter] but the family says he came into the parlor and was part of the flag committee. Theres no evidence whatsoever there was a flag committee. There could have been. We dont know about it. There probably was not a flag committee. He was having trouble with this flag. And he gave her, and she figured out how to make the stars for some pattern. Also often credited with designing the flag. But the historical evidence, we do have historical evidence about the possible and probably e designer of the flag. That is a man named Francis Hopkinson. He was a member of the Continental Congress from new jersey, but he also he was a signer of the declaration of independence. He was also a a red colonial renaissance man. He wrote poems, he wrote plays, he wrote novels, he wrote music he wrote an opera. , he was also a heraldist. He designed the great seal of the state of pennsylvania. And he designed the official seal of the university of pennsylvania. Although it was not called that at the time. And he was on the First Committee to design the great seal of the United States. Now hopkinsons design was not the final design, but it was pretty close and it happened to have red, white and blue and had happened to have 13 stars and 13 stripes. What hopkinson did was he sent a bill to congress for the design of the American Flag. He had also designed some colonial currency. That bill is in, you know, in the National Archives of the United States. So putting that together, we , strongly believe that the designer of the flag was of the first American Flag was Francis Hopkinson. The other thing about the betsy ross situation, this is the quote unquote betsy ross, 13 stars in a circle. Weve all seen that. Well, no betsy ross flags exist from the time period. The earliest ones we have is are from the 1800s. What we think is the first American Flag is the socalled Francis Hopkinson flag. The stars are arranged simile similar to the way we are used to seeing them, three, two, three, two, three. And interestingly enough, apocryphal paintings not withstanding, George Washingtons army did not fly the stars and stripes officially. Youre thinking of Washington Crossing the delaware with james Monroe Holding the betsy ross flag. Well, that was painted in 1852. All the other paintings showing Washingtons Army flying the stars and stripes are also apocryphal. In fact, the United States military did not officially adopt the stars and stripes until the early 1840s. So the answer to the trivia question, what was the first army that the americans fought officially under the stars and stripes was the mexican war. Even though we associate, of course, the starspangled banner with the war of 1812, it wasnt official at the time. The other interesting thing i found out when i was doing for just doing research for the book, is the changes in the meaning of the flag, the cultural meaning of the flag and the way americans feel about the flag, has been tied in almost every instance to wars. We have the flag borne during the revolutionary war. We have the starspangled banner in the war of 1812. Then we have in the civil war the mexican war, you can say the first flag fought under the first war the americans fought officially under the flag. More important is what happened in april of 1861. Now, going back to the flag resolution of june 14, 1777, one reason that was just one line in the continental was because the flag did not have and they went on to something else. The flag did not have the cultural meaning that it has to americans today, not even approaching it. In fact, before april, 1861, it was unheard of for individual americans to fly the American Flag. It was used primarily in front of government buildings and more so in the military, and also on navy ships. That changed almost overnight in april of 1861 when fort sumpter fell, when the American Flag was taken down at fort sumpter it went up in the north. You know, if you read the newspaper accounts, the journals and the diaries of what happened in new york and in boston, and in philadelphia and in other cities, it is almost eerily what happened after september 11. You will read that, overnight, flags started to appear in front of every building, every schoolhouse, every office, every factory. And you know, we put the flag on our pickup trucks. They put them on their horses. People put them on their hats. Obviously, this was just in the north. In a lot of ways the newspaper editorials and the politicians framed the civil war over the the civil war as a fight over the American Flag. And it caused a sea change of an aamerican attachment to the flag. Because there really were not that attached. Obviously people were and it was used, but nothing approaching to the way we feel about it now. But that started almost overnight when fort sumpter fell. I saw in the New York Times there was a sign painter in new york city who has a sign outside his shop and said, colors, warranted not to run. This is reminiscent of bumper stickers we see today. The second half of the 19th century, the last quarter of the 19th century, we saw this change across nationwide. And a lot of it had to do with the grand army of the republic. The grand army of the republic was the first large influential veterans group. It was formed right after the war by Union Veterans of the civil war. They had ebbs and flows but the by the last quarter of the century, the g. A. R. , was a very, very strong institution. Yes, they worked for veterans and widows rights. Sort of like what Veterans Service organizations do now. They also had a very strong but attachment to the flag, and they also worked very hard to promote its use, as did the newly formed patriotic societies, which were formed in the last quarter of the 19th century, the sons of the American Revolution, daughters of the American Revolution and dozens of others. And if you read their literature, and even today they all promote veneration for the flag and proper use of the flag. This was the time when the Betsy Betsy Ross myth started, in 1870. And charles rice gerber painted that painting we know. He became a very promoter