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It became a popular
trend in America in the early 20th century, beginning
around the time of World War I circa 1917, for women to
knit or crochet patriotic doilies and American flags for
decoration and as a show of patriotism. The
practice continued throughout World War II, and as a
result, a number of 48 star crochet flags still surface
occasionally today. They're one of the few forms
of homemade 48 star flags and they actually are more
abundant than homemade pieced-and-sewn examples of 48
star flags, which are rarely encountered, owing to the
huge number of mass-produced factory-made flags of the
time. A large number of crochet 48 star flags are in the
holdings of the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library,
having been sent to the President by women over the
course of his long term in office.
 This
particular example, among all the examples of the type that I'm aware of, is
special and unique. It's the largest, by far, that
I've encountered, at more than six feet in
length. Most are no larger than two feet.
This flag was tremendous labor of love. The
white stripes and stars of the flag have mellowed with
age to a beautiful golden tone. The flag has a
knit hoist and finely sewn whip-stitched grommets.
The maker of the flag painstakingly knitted a total of
96 large individual stars for the flag, and hand
stitched them back-to-back to complete each side of the
canton. The actual pattern of the stitches in the
stars themselves is marvelously complex and must have
been extremely time consuming to make. Each star is more
than two inches across at its widest. The stripes
are seamlessly knitted together, smoothly transitioning
between colors. In all, it is one of the most
complex constructions of any American flag that I've
ever encountered, and a special example of a rare flag
from the first half of the 20th century.
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