Flag Day, 2022
![](https://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/RH_PH_P2178.jpg)
Not a federal holiday, but a celebration and a remembrance. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14th as Flag Day, celebrating the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777. Flags are a particular manifestation of symbols. A flag can indicate an idea, a group, a place, or an area. With the adoption of an official flag for the United States of America, there was a unified way to signal the influence of the USA. With that noted, maybe we can look at how it and a few other flags have been used through the years!
Here we have one of several KU flags, this one a 1928 design. Used in this manner, it is very similar to a national flag, showing identification and support for the University of Kansas.
![](https://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/RG_000_049_000_000.jpg)
Flags sometimes come with the hint of violence. Here we have a photo of students around their flag to fight for on May Day in 1895. Having your flag captured was quite the sign of disgrace!
![](https://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/RG_071_010_000_000.jpg)
While flags can be used as positive symbols – representing enthusiasm, identification, etc. – flags can also be used as negative symbols. Here at a KU an anti-Vietnam war Student protest in May 1970, black flags are displayed along with a U.S. flag on a coffin near a U.S. flag at half-mast. The same flags used for celebration here demonstrate shame and loss.
![](https://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/RG_071_018_000_000.jpg)
And while a flag can be used to isolate and claim dominion, flags can be used to show hope, alliance, and gathering together as in the dedication ceremony for Allen Fieldhouse in 1955.
![](https://blogs.lib.ku.edu/spencer/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/RG_000_022_001_000.jpg)
Flags have been and are used in many different ways in many different circumstances: in humor, in celebration, in victory, in defeat, in shame, and in pride. Flag Day may specifically celebrate the adoption of a United States flag, but isn’t a bad day to think of all the flags we fly!
Shelby Schellenger
Reference Coordinator
Tags: Allen Field House, Allen Fieldhouse, Flag, Flag Day, Kansas Collection, KU History, May Day, photographs, Shelby Schellenger, Student protests, University Archives, University history, University of Kansas, Vietnam War