OHIO, FLAG OF

U.S. state flag in a swallow-tailed shape incorporating red and white stripes and a blue hoist triangle featuring a white-bordered red disk and 17 stars. Ohio is the only one of the 50 states to use a nonrectangular flag. Its designer, John Eisenmann, may have been inspired by the swallow-tailed shape of a guidon that was carried by the U.S. cavalry. The flag was to be flown from the Ohio building at the Pan-American Exposition of 1901, a circumstance that may also have contributed to its unusual shape. Eisenmann copyrighted his design in 1901, and it became official on May 9, 1902. The red disk at the hoist end suggests the seed of the buckeye, the official state tree. The white O around it corresponds to the initial letter of the state name, while the use of stars and stripes and the colours red, white, and blue clearly honour the U.S. national flag. Eisenmann associated the triangles of his design with the hills and valleys of Ohio, and the stripes symbolize the state's waterways and roads. The 17 stars in the flag recall that Ohio was the 17th state to join the Union. The shape of the flag is sometimes referred to as a burgee, which is properly a nautical term. Whitney Smith