Flag of Indiana

The current flag of Indiana was designed by Paul Hadley and officially adopted by the State of Indiana on May 31st, 1917.

It is the state's third official flag and has remained unchanged since then except for the creation of a statute to standardize the production of the flag in 1955.

First flag
A state flag for Indiana was in use as early as the late 1880s, depicting the seal of Indiana wrapped in an oak leaf wreath, a star-spangled shield with 13 stars and stripes below the seal, and a red scroll above the seal that bears the name Indiana.

On February 21, 1885, each state was asked to dedicate a state flag for the Washington Monument. At the time, Indiana lacked a state flag, and so the Indiana government had authorized Eliza Callis, the State Librarian for the Indiana State Library, to produce the first Indiana state flag.

Second flag
In 1901, Senate Bill 239 of Chapter 150 in Laws of the State of Indiana sought to make the flag of the United States the official state flag of Indiana. This Act passed at the Sixty-Second Regular Session of the General Assembly, and was put into effect on March 9, 1901 when Governor Winfield Durbin signed the bill into law. This Act lasted until 1955 when the Indiana General Assembly amended the Act, officially recognizing Paul Hadley's flag design as the state flag.

The bill reads as follows: WHEREAS, The State of Indiana has no flag; and WHEREAS, The flag of the United States is recognized as the flag of every State and Territory composing the United States; therefore SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That said flag of the United States, representing each State with a star in a blue field, be and is hereby adopted as the flag of the State of Indiana.

Current flag
To commemorate the state's 1916 centennial anniversary, the Indiana General Assembly issued a resolution to adopt a new state flag. At the request of the General Assembly, a contest was sponsored by the Indiana Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to design a flag to serve as the official state banner. As an incentive to increase the number of submissions, the contest offered the winner a one hundred dollar cash prize. More than two hundred submissions were received and examined by the Society before a winner was selected. The entry created by Paul Hadley of Mooresville, Indiana, was ultimately chosen as the winner of the contest and the cash prize.

On May 31st, 1917, the flag was chosen as the state's official banner. The General Assembly made only one change to Hadley's original design: they added the word Indiana, in a crescent shape, over the top of the torch. The state banner was later renamed the state's flag in a new statute passed in 1955 that also standardized the dimensions of the flag, namely mandating a more rectangular aspect ratio as most Indiana state flags made until then were of a more squared shape.

Flag evolution
In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) placed Indiana's flag 32nd in design quality out of the 72 Canadian provincial, U.S. state and U.S. territorial flags ranked.

Iconography
The flag consists of a gold torch that represents liberty & enlightenment; the rays around the torch represent their far-reaching influence. The nineteen stars represent Indiana's place as the nineteenth state to join the United States. The thirteen stars in the outer loop symbolize the original Thirteen Colonies, the five inner stars represent the next five states added to the Union, and the one large star above the torch represents Indiana.

Statute
The current statute that governs the design of the state flag states:

"The flag's dimensions shall be three feet fly by two feet hoist; or five feet fly by three feet hoist; or any size proportionate to either of those dimensions. The field of the flag shall be blue with nineteen stars and a flaming torch in gold or buff. Thirteen stars shall be arranged in an outer circle, representing the original thirteen states; five stars shall be arranged in a half circle below the torch and inside the outer circle of stars, representing the states admitted prior to Indiana; and the nineteenth star, appreciably larger than the others and representing Indiana shall be placed above the flame of the torch. The outer circle of stars shall be so arranged that one star shall appear directly in the middle at the top of the circle, and the word 'Indiana' shall be placed in a half circle over and above the star representing Indiana and midway between it and the star in the center above it. Rays shall be shown radiating from the torch to the three stars on each side of the star in the upper center of the circle."

There are no official shades of blue and gold for the flag.

Usage
Several other laws govern the use of the state flag.

The flag is required to be flown by all state militias and the Indiana National Guard. It is to be on display at the Indiana Statehouse at all times, and a new and different state flag is required to replace the previous flag each day whenever doing so would be feasible and practicable. The flag must also be displayed at any agency that is funded in part or in full by the state government, including public schools, state universities, and state parks. When the state flag is in too poor of a condition that it is not fitting for display, the flag should be honorably destroyed using the same method provided for the retiring and disposing of the flag of the United States.

In all other respects, the Indiana state flag should be treated with the same care and respect as the flag of the United States.

Other usage
The team colors for the NBA's Indiana Pacers were taken from the gold and blue of the flag.

Several Indiana state agencies and colleges utilize the Indiana state flag in their logos.

Several Indiana license plates use the state's flag in their designs.

In late 2008, Bloomington-licensed CW affiliate WTTV used the flag's torch and stars element in their station logo until 2015 when they became a CBS affiliate, though the logo remains in use for their second digital subchannel.

The logo of the BP-acquired Amoco Corporation (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) prominently features a torch to commemorate the company's Hoosier origins; it remains in use at the few BP stations using Amoco and Standard trade dress to maintain trademark protection.

A variation of the Indiana state flag was used as the Gotham flag in the 1989 movie Batman. The flag can be seen in the mayor's office.

After the Apollo 11 moon landing, a display case containing the state flag and 0.05 grams of space dust was created by NASA and presented to Governor Edgar D. Whitcomb. The display case remains on display at the Indiana State Museum.

In 1973, a piece of Lunar basalt 70017 was given to the state of Indiana by President Richard Nixon. A display case was created containing the piece of lunar basalt. Also on this display case, below the rock, is a copy of the state flag that had been carried to the Moon aboard Spacecraft America during the Apollo 17 mission.

Flag proposals
The idea of a state flag contest was first raised at the annual state DAR conference in 1915. To commemorate the state's 1916 centennial anniversary, the Indiana General Assembly issued a resolution to adopt a new state flag. At the request of the General Assembly, a contest was sponsored by the Indiana Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to design a flag to serve as the official state banner. This contest had received over two hundred flag submissions, including several flags designed by Paul Hadley. Of the flag submissions, only a few of them are known to have been documented.