PHILADELPHIA, Penn.– As America celebrates its 250th birthday, historic sites in Philadelphia are spotlighting the people and places tied to the nation’s earliest days — including one of its most enduring symbols: the American flag.While the Founding Fathers are often at the center of Revolutionary War history, one of the country’s most recognizable symbols is traditionally associated with an ordinary woman working from her home in Philadelphia.Betsy Ross, a 24-year-old upholsterer, is traditionally credited with sewing what many believe was the first American flag in the summer of 1776 after reportedly being approached by members of a flag committee that included George Washington. According to Lisa Acker Moulter, director of the Betsy Ross House, the historic site is helping visitors understand how that moment may have unfolded.LEARN MORE ABOUT BETSY ROSSPeople visiting Betsy Ross' House.
(Pete Cuddihy)"She said she'd never made one before, but she would certainly try," said Lisa Acker Moulter, director of the Betsy Ross House."She did suggest one change though, the flag that they showed her that was drawn on a piece of paper had six-pointed stars and she recommended five-pointed stars because they were easier to make.
She had a method that she had learned as a child to fold a piece of cloth or paper and she cut a perfect five-pointed star with just one snip of her scissors."Ross is believed by tradition to have worked in secrecy, sewing the flag by hand at night — likely in her home rather than in her upholstery shop — and completing it in about a week.The bedroom where Betsy Ross sewed the first flag (Pete Cuddihy)At the time, the colonies were still under British rule, making the creation of a national flag a potentially dangerous act.ANOTHER AMERICAN HERO WHO RISKED HIS LIFE FOR OUR FREEDOM"You have to remember that we were a British colony at the time, so making the flag would have been considered an act of treason.If she had been caught by th...