Did Betsey Ross Design the Flag of the United States of America? / Publication of the Scottsville Literary Society

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTSVILLE LITERARY SOCIETY, No. 7.
DID BETSEY ROSS DESIGN THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
By Franklin Hanford. SCOTTSVILLE, N. Y. Isaac Van Hooser. Printer. 1917.


By Franklin Hanford.
A paper read before the Scottsville Literary Society, January 22, 1917.
On Saturday, the fourteenth of June, 1777, the Continental Congress, then in session in Philadelphia, adopted a resolution which reads as follows: “Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
“The Journal of Congress is silent as to the name of the member or committee that introduced this resolution and neither is there any record of the discussions that may have preceded the adoption of our national emblem.” “It is a matter of great regret that no record of the circumstances attending the birth of the Stars and Stripes has ever been found,” for we should like to know who designed our present flag, and also, though a matter of less interest, who made, that is manufactured, the first one.
Some years ago I happened to see upon the wall at Mrs. Emma H. Miller’s house in Scottsville, a very attractive picture in colors. This picture represented General Washington seated on the left and Robert Morris and the Hon. George Ross standing near him, while, seated on the right, was Betsey Ross with a completed flag of thirteen stripes, and thirteen stars in a blue field, in her lap. “C. H. Weisberger, Copyright 1903,” was inscribed near the bottom of the picture. Underneath it was this legend; “Birth of our nation’s flag. The first American flag accepted by Congress and adopted by resolution of Congress June 14, 1777, as the national standard, was made by Betsey Ross, in 1776 at 239 Arch Street, Philadelphia, in the room represented in this picture. The Committee, Robert Morris and Hon. George Ross, accompanied by General George Washington, called upon this celebrated woman and together with her suggestions, produced our beautiful emblem of liberty.”