The Minnesota State Flag
The first state flag, adopted in 1893 and designed by Mrs. Edward H. Center, had on the obverse side a white field bearing the seal, the name of the state, and 19 gold stars symbolizing Minnesota as the 19th state to follow the original 13; the reverse of the flag was plain blue. That flag was little used, in part because its design was not easy to manufacture in quantity. On March 19, 1957, a new design was established; the background of the flag, like that of many other state flags, was henceforth to be blue on both sides. The central design from the original flag of 1893 appeared in circular form on both sides of the new flag.
On August 1, 1983, modifications were made in the state seal. Previously the American Indian in the seal had been shown fleeing a rural landscape in which a farmer was plowing while his musket and powder horn rested nearby. The revised design still includes the mounted Indian and the other symbols, but it avoids the original suggestion that the advance of the civilization requires the departure of the land’s original inhabitants. Also remaining in the seal are representations of St. Anthony Falls, a setting sun, and a border of lady’s slipper flowers together with the dates of the first European settlement in Minnesota (1819), its admission to statehood (1858), and the adoption of the first state flag. The state motto, “L’Étoile du nord” (“Star of the north”), is shown on a red ribbon. (Prior to the admission of Alaska to the union, Minnesota was the northernmost state.)
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