Flag of USA 37 stars (1867-1877)

Nebraska joined as the 37th state in 1867, and accordingly the flag carried thirty-seven stars from 1867 to 1877. Into this period falls the centennial of independence in 1876, marked in Philadelphia with a world's fair. For the anniversary, manufacturers and associations designed countless special versions of the flag, for the arrangement of the stars was still not prescribed. It was the last flowering of that freedom: in 1877 Colorado was added, and with the 38-star flag began the sequence that led to the binding regulation of 1912.

Meaning

The flag shows thirteen red and white stripes and in the blue canton thirty-seven stars arranged as a medallion: a ring of stars with further stars standing in its middle. This version deliberately takes up the Betsy Ross flag, whose thirteen stars stood in a circle — for the hundredth anniversary of independence, a return to the beginning. The message lies in the form itself: a circle has no first and no last place, all states stand side by side as equals. In law the medallion was as valid as any other arrangement, for the act counted only the stars.