Catalog

Year Adopted: 1913.

Three equal horizontal bands of red, white and blue from top to bottom with the state emblem centered. Twenty-four stars surround the coat-of-arms, representing Missouri's position as the 24th state admitted to the Union.

Missouri was annexed to the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.The Territory of Missouri, originally called the Territory of Louisiana until Louisiana statehood in 1812, was an incorporated territory of the United States from 1812-1821. It was admitted to the Union as the 24th state in 1821 under the "Missouri Compromise", which allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, keeping the balance of slave and free states with equal representation in Congress. Although Missouri was allowed to enter as a slave state, the remaining portion of the Louisiana Purchase area north of the 36° 30¢ line was declared to be free of slavery. During the Civil War however, Missouri was a split state with two state governments; one seceded and joined the Confederacy in 1861, and the other remained loyal to the Union. (see Missouri Civil War Museum, mcwm.org)

Prior to 1913, no state flag existed for Missouri. A state flag design was considered by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1908. Committee member Mrs. Marie Elizabeth Oliver, wife of Senator Robert Burett Oliver, and a resident of Cape Girardeau, designed the flag herself, and on March 17, 1909, a bill supporting the design was introduced to the Missouri Senate. It took three years and several attempts before the bill for the "Oliver flag" was finally passed. On March 22, 1913, Governor Elliot Major signed the bill into law, and made the Oliver flag the official state flag of Missouri. (ref: sos.mo.gov, The Missouri State Flag)