Flag of Maryland

Two families, one flag

Maryland’s flag comes straight from the coat of arms of its founding family. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, bore arms that combined his father’s family colors, gold and black, with those of his mother’s family, the Crosslands, red and white. When the Calverts founded Maryland in 1634, they carried those arms with them, although colonial descriptions of Maryland flags mention only the gold-and-black Calvert banner.

After independence the Calvert colors fell out of use, and Maryland was represented by various banners, most often the state seal on a blue field.

Colors divided by war

The Civil War gave the two sets of colors opposite meanings. Maryland stayed in the Union, but many Marylanders sympathized with the South, and they took up the red and white Crossland colors as “secession colors,” wearing them on their clothing. Maryland-born Confederate soldiers used the red-and-white cross bottony to identify themselves.

Reunited in a single flag

After the war, Marylanders brought the two families’ colors back together. The combined Calvert-Crossland flag made its first known appearance on October 11, 1880, at Baltimore’s 150th anniversary celebration. On October 25, 1888, it flew at Gettysburg at ceremonies honoring Maryland’s Union regiments, and in October 1889 the Fifth Regiment of the Maryland National Guard adopted it as its regimental color. The General Assembly made it the official state flag by a law effective March 9, 1904.

What the flag shows

• Quarters one and four, at the top left and bottom right: the Calvert arms, six vertical bars alternating gold and black, crossed by a diagonal band with the colors reversed.
• Quarters two and three, at the top right and bottom left: the Crossland arms, quartered red and white, with a cross bottony, a cross whose arms end in three knobs like trefoils, in the opposite colors.

By law the flag must be flown with the black stripe on the diagonal band of the first quarter nearest the top of the staff, and the only ornament allowed on top of the staff is a gold cross bottony. Flags displayed on state property and bought with state money must be made in the United States.

A popular design

Because it uses real heraldry rather than a seal on a plain background, Maryland’s flag is unusually striking, and its pattern is widely used on clothing, souvenirs and products across the state.