The flag of Maine was adopted on February 23, 1909. Its design consists of the state's coat of arms on a blue field. In the center of a heraldic shield, a moose rests under a tall pine tree. A farmer and seaman are meant to represent the traditional reliance on agriculture and the sea by the state. The North Star is intended to allude to the state motto: dirigo ('I lead'). Maine also uses an ensign with a different design; this flag was adopted on March 16, 1939.
The 2024 Maine Revised Statutes, Title 1, § 206 defines that the flag shall be:
"blue, of the same color as the blue field in the flag of the United States, and of the following dimensions and designs; to wit, the length or height of the staff to be 9 feet, including brass spearhead and ferrule; the fly of said flag to be 5feet 6inches [1.68m], and to be 4feet 4inches [1.32m] on the staff; in the center of the flag there shall be embroidered in silk on both sides of the flag the coat of arms of the State, in proportionate size."[1]
It is further specified that the edges of the flag should "be trimmed with knotted fringe of yellow silk", 2+1⁄2 inches [64mm] wide, and that the flag should have a blue and white silk cord, 8feet 6inches [2.59m] long, attached at the spearhead.[1] These embellishments are very rarely observed. A concluding note states that "a flag made in accordance with the description given in this section shall be kept in the office of the Adjutant General as a model."[1]
The coat of arms is indirectly defined by 1 M.R.S. § 201 (State Seal), but with no official colors stated, so variations in coloration can be seen in flags from different manufacturers.
The coat of arms of Maine, adopted in June 1820, contains:
Pine tree
Moose
Water and wooded landscape
Farmer (husbandman) resting on a scythe
Sailor (seaman) resting on an anchor
North Star / "Polar Star"
Label inscribed with the motto DIRIGO (Latin "I direct" or "I lead")
Banner reading "MAINE"
No definitive authorship is established; the original drawing in the state archives is unsigned. The design concept is traditionally attributed to Benjamin Vaughan of Hallowell.[2] The official description and explanation were written by Col. Isaac Reed of Waldoboro.[3][4] The original sketch has been variously attributed either to Bertha Smouse, Reed's step-daughter (per local 19th–20th century claims), or to one of Vaughan's daughters.[3][4][5][6]
Multiple artistic variants circulated throughout the 19th century. In 1919, the legislature ordered that the design should no longer vary, producing the standardized modern form commonly credited to illustrator Henry Gibson.
Maine had a semi official state color used by its militia from 1822 to 1861. After separating from Massachusetts in 1820, the Maine Adjutant General Samuel Cony needed to supply flags for Maine's approximately 100 militia companies because one of the articles of separation required Maine to return all militia flags (but it failed to mention poles, which were retained and reused). Casting about for a cost-effective method of producing such quantity of flags, he engaged John R. Penniman of Boston in 1822 to provide a suitable design which was engraved onto a copper plate and then printed onto silk in multi-colors, the first known production of such for flags. A second printing was done in 1827. About a dozen or so portions of these flags still exist, including one at the Maine Historical Society still mounted on its original pole. The last known instance of a Maine militia unit using this flag was in 1861 at the First Battle of Bull Run, which was recorded as being captured by Confederate forces.
According to the San Diego Union and Daily Bee, a state flag was carried in Chicago on July 4, 1880, but its design was not described.[7][8] There was a state flag hanging in the council chamber at the State House in 1891, the design is unknown.[9]
Modern version of the 1901 flag, featuring the pine as illustrated on the merchant and marine flag
The first flag of Maine was adopted on March 21, 1901 and consisted of a green pine tree, a New England symbol that represented freedom, in the center, with a blue "North Star", all on a buff-colored background.[10][11][12] The flag was used as a state and military flag. The flag was also displayed over the Maine building during the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. It was flown next to a unique pennant bearing a white field with the state's name in red letters and a blue star.[13] Only one contemporary state flag is known to still exist today.
Current flag
The flag flying
The Maine legislature approved the current flag of Maine on February 24, 1909.[14] To honor Union veterans, the flag was modeled after flags used by Maine's units in the American Civil War:[15] As one newspaper wrote, "The Union Blue of the traditional Maine flag honors the legacy of our forbearers and the sacrifices [made] to save the Union and Free the Slaves."[16] There were variants of the state flag carried by the national guard bearing 2 red scrolls above and below the coat of arms, containing the number of the regiment and name national guard.[17]
Ensign
Merchant and marine flag of Maine
Maine is also one of two states with a separate ensign, which is rarely seen (the other is Massachusetts). It features symbols from the current flag and the older one, with a white field and green pine tree. The green pine tree has the foul anchor, and the words "MAINE" and "DIRIGO" around it.
A photograph of the earliest-known specimen of the Maine merchant and marine flag was featured in a June 1939 International News Photos wire photo.[18][19]
2020 Bicentennial flag
Maine Bicentennial Flag
In 2019, Maine lawmakers introduced a bill to adopt a simpler flag for the state, based on the original 1901 flag.[20] A flag with a buff background, a blue star, and green pine tree from the Merchant and Marine flag, created by the Maine Flag Company, was one of the proposed options. Maine resident Jeff Van West also submitted a design for the new flag. His flag had a white star on a dark blue of a night sky over a lighter blue representing the rivers, ponds, and oceanfront of Maine. He had the tree extend off the flag border to give the feeling of being in the forest looking out over the water.
The measure to change the state flag failed. However, the legislature approved creating a flag for Maine's Bicentennial in 2020.[21] Secretary of State Matt Dunlap submitted three designs for public comment: one of his own design, one using the Maine Bicentennial Committee logo, and a third based on Van West's flag, but replacing the white star with the red/gold/white Dirigo Star from the state flag.[22] After the third design won the contest, Van West offered Dunlap a further revision replacing the multicolored Dirigo Star with a monochromatic white version. Dunlap approved that design as the Maine 2020 Bicentennial Flag.[23]
A grass-roots movement to adopt a modernized version of the 1901 flag has since sprung up.[24]
Winning design of the 2024 state flag redesign contest
In November 2024, the state held a referendum on whether to restore the 1901 flag or keep the current one. The referendum had initially been scheduled for 2023, but the Maine Legislature delayed it until 2024.[25][26] The Legislature then attempted a further delay until 2026, which was vetoed by Governor Janet Mills.[27][28] On August 5, 2024, the winner of the flag redesign contest was announced, with honors going to Adam Lemire of Gardiner, Maine. His design, chosen out of more than 400 entries, features a pine tree modeled after one he saw in Viles Arboretum in Augusta, Maine. It has sixteen branches, one for each of Maine's counties.[29] The referendum, held as part of the 2024 United States elections, saw the proposed flag rejected by 55% to 45%.[30]
Had the referendum passed, the Maine state flag would have been defined as follows:
"buff, charged with the emblem of the State, a pine tree proper, in the center, and the North Star, a mullet of 5 points, in blue in the upper corner; the star to be equidistant from the hoist and the upper border of the flag, the distance from the two borders to the center of the star being equal to about one-fourth of the hoist, this distance and the size of the star being proportionate to the size of the flag."[31]
↑Shattuck, John W. (pseud. of W. J. Sidis). The Tribes and the States (unpublished manuscript), 1935. Chapter XIX, Section 104b. "It was about this time that the old Massachusetts rebel emblem of the Pine Tree, which was in its turn the emblem of the Penacook tribes, denoting the pine forests of New England and the type of freedom native to them, was put into use in modified form as a symbol of protest against arbitrary authority. The Pine Tree was still the emblem of the Massachusetts rebels, especially of the Okamakammesset followers; while those who indulged in the more centralized forms of protest sponsored by the Sons of Liberty in the colonies as a whole used the device in the modified form of a tall pole―the Pine Tree without its needles. These "liberty poles" played a great part in subsequent demonstrations against the authorities in [North] America, and were later adopted as a rebel emblem in other countries." http://www.mortenbrask.com/wp-content/uploads/The-tribes-and-the-states-SIDIS.pdf
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An early flag of the Massachusetts Bay Colony with the St George's cross of England removed. Maine was a part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. [32]
After the union of England and Scotland, some New England ensigns used the British Union Flag rather than the St George's Cross. [33]
The flag of New England during the Revolutionary War. [35]
Flag flown during the Dominion of New England using the personal standard of Edmund Andros.
Flag of the short lived Republic of Madawaska which was situated between Canada and the US.
John C. Frémont campaign flag used in Maine, 1856. [36]
