Flag of Rhode Island

What the flag shows

• The white field. Britannica says the white of Rhode Island’s first civil state flag matched the facings of the state militia’s Revolutionary War uniforms.
• The anchor. A gold anchor in the center, 22 inches high on the statutory flag of 5 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 10 inches. It has been the colony’s emblem since its seal of 1647.
• The ribbon. A blue ribbon beneath the anchor carrying the motto “Hope” in gold letters. The state traces the motto to the biblical image of hope as an anchor of the soul.
• Thirteen stars. In a gold circle around the anchor and ribbon, linked to Rhode Island’s place as the 13th state.

By law the flag is edged with yellow fringe and carried on a 9-foot pike topped by a spearhead.

The anchor through history

The colonial legislature chose an anchor for the colony’s seal in 1647, and in 1664 it adopted a seal with the anchor and the word “Hope.” By the Revolutionary War, Rhode Island’s military flags carried the anchor and motto, and Rhode Island ships may have flown a simple anchor flag by the early 1800s.

Three state flags

Rhode Island’s first non-military state flag was adopted on March 30, 1877. It had a white field and an ornate anchor and motto ringed by blue stars, one for each state in the Union. On February 1, 1882, a simpler flag replaced it: a yellow anchor inside a ring of 13 yellow stars on a blue field. The present white flag, with its gold anchor, blue “Hope” ribbon and 13 gold stars, was adopted on May 19, 1897.

A hard flag to read

The design has one weakness. Gold on white breaks the old heraldic rule against putting one metal on another, and Britannica notes that the anchor and stars are hard to see when the flag is flying or in poor light.

Flags on Independence Day

Every May 4, Rhode Island Independence Day, which marks the colony’s renunciation of allegiance to King George III in 1776, state law has the governor order 13-gun salutes at noon and the state and national flags displayed on armories and other state buildings from sunrise to sunset. Rhode Island has no official pledge or salute to its flag.