The American flag is so familiar, but do you know that the design could have been something you would not recognize?Back in 1958, as talk of the admission of two new states to the union swept the country, the Eisenhower administration was deluged with varying designs for a new 50-star flag."People begin sending in ideas for how the new flag should look," said Dr.Jim Ginther, the Supervisory Archivist for the Dwight D.
Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas, which has kept all the submissions from back then."Suddenly there's a massive public interest again in the design of the flag.Beginning in July 1958, the White House begins receiving designs from the public, as does the Quartermaster Corps of the Army, from all over the country and from all over the world."ERIC SHAWN REVEALS SURPRISING DESIGNER OF CURRENT AMERICAN FLAGA proposed 50-star American flag design from 1958 is displayed at the Dwight D.
Eisenhower Presidential Library, one of more than 1,900 submissions sent to the White House before the official flag was adopted.(Fox Nation)The story of the 50-star flag is told in episode one of the new series, "Crazy American History with Eric Shawn," that is now streaming on Fox Nation.One star was added to the flag in January 1959 when Alaska joined the union as the 49th state. The 50th star was added with the admission of Hawaii as a state, and that new flag was officially raised for the first time on July 4, 1960, at Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, site of the War of 1812 bombardment that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."But in the two years before President Eisenhower settled on the new design for the Stars and Stripes, flag fever gripped the nation.The White House eventually received more than 1,900 designs, many from school children as part of their lessons from the classroom publication "My Weekly Reader." Adults from across the country, and even overseas, submitted their proposals.A proposed 50-star U.S....