American Historical Ephemera and Photography

Each guidon approx. 18 x 24 in. (sight), printed on cotton and stenciled with a "7" over crossed swords of the 7th Cavalry Regiment and "A," "B, " C," 'D," "E" respectively for the various troops. One guidon bearing the hand-written inscription, "Snell," the middle flag has only 12 stripes. Mounted for display. in UV resistant plastic box.

Provenance:
A group of these parade guidon flags were found in a wooden crate at Fort Sheridan, outside of Chicago in the early 1970s while the fort was being decommissioned. An officer stationed there acquired the entire group of flags as surplus; Collection of Jeffrey Kenneth Kohn, MD.

It is believed that these parade guidons were originally made for recruitment efforts at the Presidio in San Francisco, California, ca 1889. Sometime after that, they were transferred to Fort Sheridan and used periodically for parades and ceremonies. One of the common ceremonies of the late 19th century was "Pass in Review" of visiting regiments of infantry and cavalry on the Fort's parade ground.

42 Star flags were official for a narrow period of two years- between 11 November 1889 and 4 July 1891, with the admission of Washington as the 42nd state and the subsequent admission of Idaho as the 43rd state.