Flag of Virginia

What the flag shows

• The field. Deep blue. The law specifies only the color.
• The circle. A white circle in the center, made of the same material as the field.
• Virtus. The genius, or spirit, of the Commonwealth, dressed as an Amazon, holding a spear pointing down and a sheathed sword pointing up, with her foot on the fallen figure of Tyranny.
• Tyranny. Lying with a fallen crown nearby, a broken chain in one hand and a scourge in the other. The Secretary of the Commonwealth reads the scene as virtue casting down a ruler and the tools of oppression.
• The words. “Virginia” above and the motto “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” “Thus always to tyrants,” below.
• The fringe. An optional white fringe on the edge farthest from the staff.

The scene appears the same on both sides, and the governor sets the flag’s size by proclamation.

The 1776 seal

The flag’s design comes from Virginia’s Great Seal. A committee led by George Wythe worked it out in the library of the College of William and Mary, and the Virginia Convention approved it on July 5, 1776. Its front became the centerpiece of the flag.

The 1861 flag

On April 30, 1861, after its vote to secede, the Virginia Convention adopted an ordinance making the front of the state seal on a deep blue background the state flag. Encyclopedia Virginia notes that the General Assembly itself never formally approved a flag design; the convention’s ordinance served as the authority. The present legal description dates from the 1950 Code of Virginia and was recodified in 2005.

Rules for the flag

State law has the flag fly over the chambers of the Capitol whenever either house of the General Assembly is in session, and requires the Department of General Services to keep state flags for sale to the public at cost.