Flag of California

Metrics for the Flag of California

The first official version of the Bear Flag was adopted by the California State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Hiram Johnson in 1911 as the official state flag.[2]

The 1911 statute stated:

The bear flag is hereby selected and adopted as the state flag of California. ... The said bear flag shall consist of a flag of a length equal to one and one-half the width thereof; the upper five-sixths of the width thereof to be a white field, and the lower sixth of the width thereof to be a red stripe; there shall appear in the white field in the upper left-hand corner a single red star, and at the bottom of the white field the words 'California Republic,' and in the center of the white field a California grizzly bear upon a grass plat, in the position of walking toward the left of the said field; said bear shall be dark brown in color and in length, equal to one-third of the length of said flag.

Vertical display

In 1953, the design and specifications for the state flag were standardized in a bill signed by Governor Earl Warren and illustrated by Donald Graeme Kelley of Marin County, California.[3] The California state flag is often called the "Bear Flag" and in fact, the present statute adopting the flag, California Government Code § 420, states: "The Bear Flag is the State Flag of California."

Pursuant to Section 439 of the California Government Code, the regulations and protocols for the proper display of the flag of California is controlled by the California Adjutant General:

The Adjutant General shall, by regulation, prescribe rules regarding the times, places, and the manner in which the State Flag may be displayed. He shall, periodically, compile the laws and regulations regarding the State Flag. Copies of the compilation shall be printed and made available to the public at cost by the Department of General Services.

When the flag is displayed vertically, it is rotated 90 degrees clockwise such that the bear and star face upward and red stripe is on the left.[4]

The flag is also used as the state ensign.[5][6]

The modern state flag is white with a wide red strip along the bottom. There is a red star in the upper left corner and a grizzly bear facing left (toward the hoist) in the center, walking on a patch of green grass. The size of the bear is 2/3 the size of the hoist width and has a ratio of 2 by 1. The grass plot has a ratio of 11 to 1.[1] The five-point star is taken from the California Lone Star Flag of 1836.[4]

"Monarch" the bear

Finally accepted official rendering of the bear

The bear on one 1911 version of the flag is claimed to have been modeled on the last California grizzly bear in captivity.[7] The bear, named "Monarch", was captured in 1889 by newspaper reporter Allen Kelley, at the behest of William Randolph Hearst.[8] The bear was subsequently moved to Woodwards Gardens in San Francisco, and then to the zoo at Golden Gate Park. After the bear's death in 1911, it was mounted and preserved at the Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park.[9]

While the bear flag was adopted in 1911, until 1953 the image of the bear varied depending on the flag manufacturer, and was finally standardized based on an image of Monarch.[10] In 1953 the bear image was standardized based on an 1855 watercolor by Charles Christian Nahl.[11][12] The 1953 law includes an official black and white rendering of the bear as well as the plot of grass and brown tufts. This drawing and other specifications that define the flag's colors and dimensions are identified as "54-J-03". [13]

In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association surveyed its members on the designs of the 72 U.S. state, U.S. territorial, and Canadian provincial flags and ranked the flag of California 13th.[14]

The 1953 legislation defined the exact shades of the California flag with a total of five colors (including the white field) relative to the 9th edition of the Standard Color Card of America (now called the Standard Color Reference of America).[13] It is one of only four US state flags that does not contain the color blue (the other three being Alabama, Maryland, and New Mexico).

• Seal is used for the dark shading of the bear, the 12 darker tufts in the plot of grass, the border of the plot and the lettering "CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC".
• Maple Sugar is the base color for the bear.
• Old Glory Red is used for the star, the bear's tongue and the red stripe at the bottom of the flag.
• Irish Green is used for the grass plot.
• The bear's claws are also accented with white. The left front and rear paws have four white claws while the right rear claw displays three. The front right paw does not contain highlighting.

Last known California Lone Star flag, now held at The Gene Autry Western Museum in Los Angeles

1836 California Lone Star Flag

In 1836, a coup led by Juan Alvarado declared Alta California's independence from Mexico. Declaring himself governor, Alvarado recruited American frontiersmen, led by Isaac Graham, to support him. The rebels easily captured the capital Monterey, but were unable to convince southern leaders such as Juan Bandini and Carlos Antonio Carrillo to join the rebellion. Faced with a civil war, Alvarado and the other Californios negotiated a compromise with the central government wherein California's leaders accepted its status as a "department" under the "Siete Leyes" Mexican constitution of 1836, in return for more local control. Alvarado was appointed governor the next year.

The Lone Star Flag of California, associated with Alvarado's rebellion, contained a single red star on a white background.[4] One last original flag is archived at the Autry National Center.[16]

The original 1846 Bear Flag with its designer, Peter Storm, c. 1870

Digital reproduction of the first Bear Flag

Bear Flag monument on the Sonoma Plaza

Todd's original Bear Flag, photographed in 1890

Digital reproduction of Todd's Bear Flag.

Digital reproduction of the first official Bear Flag, credited to Pio Pico, affixed to the bottom of California's Declaration of Independence of 1846

The original Grizzly Bear Flag was designed by Peter Storm. Versions of Storm's Bear Flag were raised for the first time in Sonoma, California, in June 1846 on a date between the 14th and the 17th,[17] by the men who became known as the "Bear Flaggers", including William B. Ide.[18] The exact creation date is at least somewhat unclear. However, U.S. Naval Lieutenant John Missroon reported the flag's existence as of June 17, 1846.[19]

One Bear Flag was designed by William L. Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln.[20] According to the book Flags Over California, published by the California Military Department, the star on the flag began in the 1836 California Lone Star Flag. William Todd, in an 1878 letter to the Los Angeles Express, states that the star was drawn using blackberry juice and in recognition of the California Lone Star Flag. The bear was designed to be a symbol of strength and unyielding resistance.[4]

According to the Sonoma State Historic Park, the construction of the flag was described as such:

At a company meeting it was determined that we should raise a flag and that it should be a bear en passant [a heraldry term signifying that the bear is walking toward the viewer's left], with one star. One of the ladies at the garrison gave us a piece of brown domestic, and Mrs. Captain John Sears gave us some strips of red flannel about 4 inches wide. The domestic was new, but the flannel was said to have been part of a petticoat worn by Mrs. Sears across the mountains…I took a pen, and with ink drew the outline of the bear and star upon the white cloth. Linseed oil and Venetian red were found in the garrison, and I painted the bear and star…Underneath the bear and star were printed with a pen the words 'California Republic' in Roman letters. In painting the words I first lined out the letters with a pen, leaving out the letter 'i' and putting 'c' where 'i' should have been, and afterwards the 'i' over the 'c'. It was made with ink, and we had nothing to remove the marks.[21]

The bear on the first bear flag and other early bear flags more closely resembles the more common American black bear than a grizzly, seen in the lack of shoulder hump and narrower muzzle. Moreover, the first bear flag closely resembles the coat of arms of Bern, Switzerland's capital city. The coat of arms displays a black bear walking toward the left with fierce claws and a protruding tongue. Switzerland was the home country of John Sutter, who established Sutter's Fort, in the area which would spawn the California Gold Rush and eventually become Sacramento, California's state capital.

The original Bear Flag and the republic it symbolized had a brief career, from about June 14 until July 9.[22] On July 7, 1846, Commodore John Drake Sloat of the United States Navy's Pacific Squadron first raised the 28-star American flag at Monterey, the capital of Alta California, and claimed the territory for the United States.[22]

The state flag flying at San Francisco City Hall

Two days later, on July 9, 1846, Navy Lieutenant Joseph Warren Revere arrived in Sonoma and hauled down the Bear Flag, running up in its place the Stars and Stripes. The Bear Flag was given to young John E. Montgomery (son of Commander John B. Montgomery of USS Portsmouth), who would later write in a letter to his mother "Cuffy came down growling"—"Cuffy" being his nickname for the bear on the flag.

The Bear Flag given to young Montgomery returned with USS Portsmouth to the east coast of the U.S. in 1848, but in 1855 was returned to California.[23] The flag was given to California's two senators John B. Weller and William M. Gwin. This flag was donated to the Society of California Pioneers on September 8, 1855, and was preserved at the Society's Pioneer Halls in San Francisco until it was destroyed on April 18, 1906, in the fires that followed the great San Francisco earthquake.[23] Today, a replica hangs on display in the Sonoma Barracks, or El Presidio de Sonoma. There is also a statue in the plaza at Sonoma, California, commemorating the raising of the flag, the Bear Flag Monument.

During the secession crisis and the early part of the American Civil War in 1861, California was divided between supporters of the union and supporters of southern secession. In the months leading up to the war some opposed to the government in Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County showed support for secession by flying variants of the Bear Flag instead of the Stars and Stripes.[24]^:194–195

Original photograph of the JP Gillis Flag, flown by proslavery Californians on a street in Sacramento, CA, July 4th 1861. Captured by Unionists July 4th 1861.[25] The only Confederate flag captured in California during the Civil War.[26]

Digital reproduction of the Gillis flag

During the war, Union soldiers protected the West against secessionists who ran up Confederate flags in many places, including above the California statehouse in Sacramento, then disappearing before they could be caught.[24] On July 4, 1861, during Independence Day celebrations in Sacramento, Democrat and veteran Maj. J. P. Gillis celebrated the independence of the United States from Britain and the secession of the Confederacy by unfurling a flag based on the first Confederate flag, the Stars and Bars, but containing seventeen stars rather than the Confederate banner's seven, and marching down the street to the cheers of proslavery individuals. Unionist Jack Biderman denounced Gillis, tore the flag from his hands, and taunted secessionists to try to take the flag back. No one tried. Because Gillis' flag was seized by Jack Biderman, it is referred to either as the "Biderman Flag" or the "Gillis Flag."[27]