MRS. BETSY ROSS,
THE AUTHOR OF THE FLAG AND SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES.
MISS ELIZABETH GRISCOM was born 1742, in Philadelphia, and was married in 1762 to Mr. John Ross, a merchant of that city. She was a strict member of The Society of Friends, and by them always called “Betsy Ross.” She was unsurpassed in fine needlework, and well known throughout Philadelphia and New York cities as the most artistic upholstress in America. She used the most superior, richest and finest of imported embroidered velvets, satins, silks and woolens, that were brought to this country by the packet ships of Caleb and Thomas Cope, Boyd & Reed, and John Ross, agreeably to her express orders; and she had a dozen or more of her sisters, daughters and nieces constantly employed sewing and finishing variegated needlework, in the very best manner, as she directed them; and thus no other upholsterer could possibly compete with her. She was a natural artist, an inventive genius, who fully understood the best effects of complimentary colors, and the grandeur of the primary colors; yet, strange as it may appear, though one of the plainest of “Quakers,” she invariably used cloths of the very brightest, and in every instance the primary colors combined, so as to be distinguished from all other objects, and she quickly judged and comprehended the styles that would best please her customers. Her brilliant draperies and tri-colored curtains, in the public halls, hotel parlors, and drawing rooms, were greatly admired; whilst General Washington, General Hand, Thomas Mifflin, George Clymer, Jared Ingersoll, J. Koch, Gouveneur Morris, Robert Morris, Judge James Wilson, Frederick A. Muhlenberg, Joseph Wilson, Caleb and Thomas Cope, Thomas Wilson, Timothy Matlack, James Trimble, and William Shippen, are some of the names on her store-books, as her generous and kind friends and patrons, whose heirs still possess beautiful curtains and magnificent quilts of variegated silks and satins, unsurpassed, at this day, for beauty of utility, justness of composition, that none but a perfect artist could produce; and the constant use of materials of primary colors were her praise, excellence, and fame.
Colonel George Ross, (a member of the Continental Congress,) and James Trimble, (afterwards Deputy Secretary of Pennsylvania,) were her brothers-in-law, and through their suggestions, she adorned, with drapery, the Hall of Congress, and the Governor’s reception room. Her upholstery in the ladies’ cabins and state rooms of Caleb and Thomas Cope’s packet ships was unrivalled and not equalled by the state rooms of the European packets; whilst from the topmasts of Cope’s packets, her waving red, white, and blue STREAMERS made glad the travelers of the seas, several years before the Revolution of 1776. Some of the theatres and public halls of Philadelphia were embellished and decorated with curtains of white, mazarine, and scarlet velvets and silks in waves, festoons, and pendents, and in many instances the curtains were embroidered with gold and silver figures of vines, leaves, and stars that glittered with superb brilliancy, whilst the curtains were invariably supported by a golden spread eagle, with lightning darts in its talons and a silvery olive branch in its beak; and these were the original and wonderful handiwork of Betsy Ross. She could not think of or invent anything brighter or more graceful than her most celebrated gay and glittering primary colored curtains, spangled with stars and supported by a golden eagle, that already ornamented and adorned the interior of the chief Halls of the land. They were her daily delight and divinely brilliant dreams by night. With her scissors she cut the form of a small shield, upon which she sewed five-pointed stars and tri-colored stripes, in imitation of General Washington’s coat-of-arms, which embraced stars and pales upon his escutcheon; this shield she fastened upon the eagle’s breast; and, inspired with one bright thought, she seized her meritorious daily work, flung it to the breeze, hung it “UPON THE OUTER WALLS,” and the Freemen of Columbia cheered, and hailed it “The Flag of the Union!” And that one independent FLING made all the people King!
At the request of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Robert Morris and Col. George Ross, she designed and made the first Flag of the United States, consisting of thirteen red and white stripes, a blue field as a square, on the left and upper corner, and upon the blue field was a spread eagle, with thirteen stars, in a circle of rays of glory, surrounding its head, and the United States Seal was afterwards made from the same design of the United States Flag, viz: A red, white and blue shield on the breast of an American Eagle, holding in its talons an olive branch and thirteen arrows; in its beak a scroll inscribed with this motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” and above its head thirteen stars arranged in a circle of glory. These designs were approved and adopted by the Committee and Congress, and they were made before the words “United States of America,” were legally used. The country was called “Columbia,” the Congress was styled the “Continental Congress,” the States were called “Colonies,”; every petition sent to the King of Great Britain, and every public document, were issued by “The North American Colonies;” our Country had no name until Betsy Ross marked upon her Flags, “The United States of America.” Dr. Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had been appointed (December, 1775, by Congress, a Secret Committee) to prepare a Flag, and a device for a Seal for the Colonies, and Dr. Rittenhouse was requested by the Committee, to engrave the Seal corresponding with the eagle on the Flag.
On the 4th day of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was finished and signed, and the Rev. Dr. Duché, Chaplain of Congress, had offered up his celebrated “Prayer of Independence,” the Star Spangled Banner was unfurled, and emblazoned the Hall of Independence, and hung around the spire of the Old State House Bell, as it sounded its tones of warning beyond the city limits, re-echoed across the Delaware, and proclaimed the liberty of the land, amidst the thundering shouts of Freemen, the roaring of cannons, musketry, firearms, and bonfires; then the Secret Committee, Franklin, Jefferson and Adams, was publicly announced by the President of Congress, and the Seal (already made) of the “United Colonies,” was used that day. Aye! the Flags waved, the Seal was engraved, and the thirteen “United States of America” were saved.
The Flag was afterwards adopted by Congress, June 14, 1777, and September 15, 1789, they passed the act, that “The Seal heretofore used by the ‘United Colonies’ in Congress assembled, shall be the Seal of the ‘United States;’” and for his beautiful workmanship in engraving that seal, Dr. Rittenhouse was honored with the appointment of Director of the United States Mint; and Franklin styled Rittenhouse, “the Newton of America.”