Philadelphia museum unveils largest exhibit of Revolutionary War flags in more than two centuries

The Museum of the American Revolution on Saturday unveiled the largest exhibit of Revolutionary War flags in more than two centuries, featuring about half of the 30 flags still known to exist.

The “Banners of Liberty” exhibit opening coincided with the 250th anniversary of the “shot heard ‘round the world” that started the American Revolutionary War during the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts.

“We are standing among flags that have not been together since the Continental Army disbanded,” said James Taub, associate curator, in the museum’s first-floor Patriots Gallery, where the flags are framed and behind protective glass and will be on display until Aug. 10.

The flags, many of which were likely used in battles in the Philadelphia region, had been scattered for years, some in personal collections and only recently discovered. They hail from Concord, N.H., Schenectady, N.Y., Hartford, Conn., Freehold, N.J., Wilmington, Baltimore, Harrisburg, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia.

The idea for the exhibit originated about five years ago, and over the last couple of years museum officials have been negotiating with owners of the flags to bring them to Philadelphia, Taub said.

“Part of this job — and I didn’t think I would have [to do] that when I got a history degree — is you have to be able to network, schmooze, so I could borrow flags,” he said.

Most of the flags are owned by public and private institutions, but private individuals own some of them.

Until 2023, the 2nd Spartan Regiment of Militia flag was squirreled away in an attic of descendants of Revolutionary Army Col. Thomas Brandon, who was from Pennsylvania. It had been flown by a South Carolina militia unit. Now, it is owned by the public library in Spartanburg, S.C.

The flag features a rattlesnake — a common American Revolution symbol at the time — and a dog, believed to be a reference to Shakespeare’s Othello, in which a dog symbolizes a bloodthirsty man, Taub said.

“So now the question we have to ask ourselves is: Are the snake and the dog friends?” he said. “Are they saying we’re bloodthirsty men and we’re going to fight for American liberties? Or is the snake fighting a bloodthirsty dog in this form of a British person?”

Taub said there probably are more flags hidden in attics and he hopes the 250th anniversary may get people to take a look at their own collections.

During the war, the flags were used to mark the position of a unit on the battlefield or ends of a line, Taub said. There was no standard design, befitting an army of soldiers who were still trying to figure out who they were and the new country they were fighting for, he said.

Another flag, from the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, features a circular chain with the names of the original 13 states written inside each link, surrounding the words: We are one.

Only one of the flags, the Commander in Chief’s Standard, belongs to the museum. It is the flag that George Washington is believed to have kept with him in camp and on the battlefield, Taub said, and also features the earliest known use of 13 stars as an American symbol.

The 1st Pennsylvania Battalion flag, which includes the earliest known usage of the phrase United We Stand, is back in Philadelphia likely for the first time since the Revolution, Taub said. The flag originally was in the possession of Philadelphia soldier Josiah Harmar and most recently was owned by the City of Cincinnati. To get it released for the exhibit, the flag was transferred to the Cincinnati History Museum, Taub said.

“For me, it’s one of my favorites in this exhibit because as a Philadelphian, this is a return of our history to the city, and the Cincinnati History Museum was more than happy to loan it,” he said.

Some flags came from individuals, like the 8th Virginia Regiment flag on loan from New Jersey collectors Brian and Barbara Hendelson.

Most of the flags are made of silk, which is easy to paint on; a couple are wool bunting, Taub said. Pulaski’s Legion Standard flag was made by the Moravian Single Sisters of Bethlehem — described as a community of unmarried women. It features four flaming bombs, one in each corner.

“It’s a once-in-a-many-lifetimes opportunity,” museum president and CEO R. Scott Stephenson told a crowd gathered for a ceremony before the exhibit’s opening, which also was heralded in a proclamation by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.

Two museum workers in Revolutionary garb fired replicas of muskets from that period to reenact that famous initial shot in 1775. (No bullets used, of course.) But in this case, it was the shot heard … by none.

Still nothing on the second try.

“Third time has to be the charm,” Stephenson said.

And it was, yielding cheers from the crowd.

Shortly after the ceremony ended and just a couple of blocks away, another event marking the first shots of the American Revolution began on Independence Mall, this one aimed at President Donald Trump’s administration and what critics are calling his executive overreach.

About 2,000 people, according to police estimates, gathered with flags and signs at the “No Kings!” protest and march held by 50501, a national grassroots organization that came about after Trump’s inauguration. The name signifies 50 states, 50 protests, one day, said Ben Fitzgerald, a Haverford College junior from Connecticut, who was on the protest planning team.

“We hope to send a message to our congresspeople, to the Trump administration, that we’re not complicit,” the 22-year-old philosophy major said. “We are fighting back, and we demand that they take their hands off our fundamental rights.”

Staff writer Michelle Myers contributed to this article.