Year Adopted: 1902.

Ohio was once part of the Northwest Territory created by the United States in 1787, after Britian ceded claims to its western territories at the end of the American Revolution. Ohio became the 17th state in 1803.

The Ohio burgee, as the swallow-tailed design is properly called, was designed in 1901 by John Eisenmann, architect and designer for Ohio Building at the Pan-American Exposition being held in Buffalo, New York. The Ohio flag has three red and two white horizontal stripes. At its staff end, in a blue triangular field whose apex is at the center of the middle red stripe, are 17 white, five-pointed stars grouped around a red disc superimposed upon a white circular O.

Mr. Eisenmann explained the Ohio flag’s symbolism: “The triangles formed by the main lines of the flag represent the hills and valleys as typified in the State Seal, and the stripes the roads and waterways. The stars, indicating the 13 original states of the Union, are grouped about the circle which represents the Northwest Territory; and that Ohio was the seventeenth state admitted into the Union is shown by adding four more stars. The white circle with its red center not only represents the initial letter of Ohio but is suggestive of it being the Buckeye State. (ref; ohiohistorycentral.org)