A 44/13 Star American National Flag commemorating Wyoming statehood Kansas, circa 1890

One side with a two-part muslin panel hand-painted with American eagle above bannerette inscribed "United we Stand- Divided we Fall," signed "J.L Searing," hand-sewn to cotton canton and enclosed by 13 machine-sewn cotton stars; the reverse, canton with 44 machine-sewn cotton stars, machine-sewn cotton stripes, cotton header. Bearing stamps, "Geo. W. Ziders His Flag" and "Mr. G.W. Ziders/Lost Springs, Kansas." The header with holes for hanging.

70 in. x 83 in.

Provenance

The flag was owned by George W. Ziders (1829-1898 (?)) who was born to German immigrants in Pennsylvania and relocated to Illinois in his early adulthood. Ziders served as a Private in Company A, 1st Illinois Regiment Cavalry, during the Civil War. He moved from Illinois to Kansas about 1875 and was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Colonel Barnhill Post 274 in Lost Springs, Kansas. Ziders' daughter Fannie (1866-1945) married Joseph Leggett Searing (1859-1936), a mechanic by trade and the artist of this flag's patriotic panel. Searing was born in West Chester, New York and spent his childhood in New York City. The Searing family relocated to Lost Springs, Kansas about the same time as the Ziders family. After Ziders' death, his widow Mary Ellen Hulen Ziders (1842-1921) moved to Oregon. The flag was found in an Oregon house sale in 2006.

Collection of Jeffrey Kenneth Kohn, MD.