Flag collection
Flags from every major military conflict of the 20th and 21st centuries and many non-military flags collected as part of the history of Georgia and the Capitol.
More About This Collection
Date of Original
1861/9999
Subject
Flags--Georgia
Location
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
Medium
flags
Description
In 1905, Georgia Gov. Joseph Terrell announced that the U.S. War Department had returned twenty-six Civil War flags to Georgia. He requested state funds to preserve the collection. In 1916, the General Assembly mandated that the flags from the Civil War and Spanish American War "be preserved for all time in the Capitol of the State." The law required the governor to accept "any such flag . . . offered to the State" and "to make such provision for its preservation as may be necessary. . . ." Thus began the Georgia Capitol flag collection. For over one hundred years the flag collection has grown to include flags from every major military conflict of the 20th and 21st centuries. The collection also included many non-military flags collected as part of the history of Georgia and the Capitol. While several flags in the Georgia Capitol flag collection are on loan, many have been donated from other states, organizations, or private citizens. In 1964, Gov. Matthew Welsh of Indiana returned two Georgia Confederate battle flags to Gov. Ernest Vandiver, declaring: "We are joined indivisibly into one great nation leading the peoples of the world toward the peace with freedom and dignity for which mankind so fervently prays.", After ninety years of display on the first floor of the Georgia Capitol the fragile flags began to show serious wear and deterioration. Beginning in the early 1990s the Georgia Capitol Museum began the work of conserving many of the flags in our collection. The process included removing past harmful treatments applied to the flags along with encapsulating the flags to protect them for another century. The flags were removed from permanent display and placed in a climate controlled storage facility. A limited number of flags are temporarily displayed for the public in "Hall of Valor" located on the first floor of the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia.
Holding Institution
Georgia Archives
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