Presidential and Vice Presidential Flags

[tdurbinmas]

Sharing photos of some of my Presidential and Vice Presidential flags. They are military flags.

[Tank Destroyer]

Thoms, such an under appreciated part of the collecting field but one of the collecting fields of some of the highest quality items due to the craftsmanship.
Question, most of the eagles are facing the olive branches(peace) but one of the eagles is facing the arrows(war), why is the one facing the arrows?

Still wanting you to write a book.

Marty

[tdurbinmas]

Hi Marty, Thanks! Nice comments and I appreciate it. You know that I love flags. They are a very unique area of collecting and each one is designed to tell a story.

You ask about the "war" eagle.....that is actually a myth based on a heraldic error by the designer of the Model 1916 presidential flag. If you look at the eagles preceding that version, the eagle correctly faced toward its right or toward the flag pole and the olive branch located in the right talons. The arrows are held in the left talons. In the 1916 flag the eagle mistakenly looks toward the fly end of the flag and the arrows. Despite this error, and many years of peace between WW1 and WW2, the eagle continued to face its left and the arrows. The Institute of Heraldry corrected this when FDR ordered a redesign of the Presidential flag in 1945 and the eagle returned to its rightward gaze.

I am still learning about flags every day. It is always interesting.