Talk:Flag of Alaska

Flag Accuracy
Eight stars of gold on field of blue... The Big Dipper is really out of whack on this graphic. I think the stars are all the same size as well. -- Decumanus 18:05, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) Why is one of the stars bigger than the other ones? Keyboard mouse (talk) 00:27, 23 April 2010 (UTC) That picture does suck, it's more because the placement and the color of the stars, I've been trying to replace all the alaskan flags I find on wikipedia to "File:Alaskaflag.gif" but yes, the north star is a little bit bigger than the rest, fitting as it is the brightest in the alaskan sky, and it is known as the bear, which symbolizes strength. - duck_that_quacks_alot 11:00, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

I reverted the .gif image of the Flag of Alaska. The stars are based on Ursa Major (the Big Dipper), and the .gif image did not portray these quite right. SVGs are preferred over .gifs in either case. Does anyone have a copy of the official law as signed by the Alaskan legislature? I would like to make sure the flag is accurate to the written law. In particular, I would like information on the size of the stars and position on the fly and hoist. -DevinCook (talk) 10:43, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Q why does Alaska use an flag from Ireland? Gazzas46zs (talk) 05:56, 31 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Which one are you referring to? There are cases of different states coming up with identical solutions. -DevinCook (talk) 14:49, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

The Old Flag
The Russian American Company flag was authorized under Czar Alexander I in 1806. It was the first special flag granted by the Russian Government to any private company. The proposal to establish the flag was submitted by the Minister of Trade N. P. Rumiantsev, who devoted much attention to the Company and personally financed several scientific expeditions. (Port Rumiantsev, the Russian shipping and harbor facility at Bodega Bay was later named for him.) The flag was granted on September 19, 1806 by the St. Petersburg offices. The RAC flag was authorized to be raised over Russian fortifications and on Company ships in place of naval flags. This gave special recognition to the Company in the international trade world.

The flag flew over all Russian American Company settlements, including Fort Ross. The RAC flag has three stripes, the lower red, the middle blue, and the upper and wider stripe white. Painted on the flag is the Russian imperial crest, the double headed eagle. A ribbon hanging from the talons of the eagle is the inscription ‘Russo-American Company.’ On the breast of the double headed eagle is a square with a red shield and St. George on a white steed looking to the left. Between 1818 and 1831 a professional artist was hired by the Company specially to make and draw the emblem on the flags. The Company used six to ten flags annually.

Flags were probably flown on a daily basis at the Ross Colony and in Alaska. Certainly, they were always flown for special occasions such as the arrival of ships and visiting dignitaries, and celebrations of any sort.

The flag flew over Alaska until October 18th, 1867 when all Russian American Company holdings in Alaska were sold to the United States. —Preceding unsigned comment added by UeArtemis (talk • contribs) 20:22, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

I have replaced the above description of the Russian-American Company flag in the article because it contains many errors. I have left it on the talk page so the reader may compare the two accounts and judge for themselves which is more accurate. The first error states "The flag was granted on September 19, 1806 by the St. Petersburg offices." As can be seen in the replaced article it was approved by the Emperor on September 28th (old style) which is October 10th (new style) and, after "Imperial confirmation the ukaz was heard in the Senate and on 19 October 1806".

Fort Ross has always had trouble with its Russian dates, and recently completely missed its own actual 200th anniversay which it understood to be on August 30th, 1812 (old style), when it was actually on September 11th (new style).

The sentence "The RAC flag was authorized to be raised over Russian fortifications and on Company ships in place of naval flags." is entirely incorrect. Naval flags were never flown on either Company establishments or ships. On occasion a Company ship was authorized to fly a naval ensign, but only at express desire of the Emperor, which then made the ship a naval vessel.

The Russian version of the inscription on the ribbon beneath the eagle is also incorrect: it should read "Rossiiskoi-Amerikanskoi Kompanii" At various times and on various examples of the flag the inscription was abbreviated; in 1806 the inscription read "Rossiiskoi Amerik: Kompa". The only extant original flag in the Hermitage collection has as it's inscription "- - (letters missing)-erikan: Kompanii".

The statement "Flags were probably flown on a daily basis at the Ross Colony and in Alaska." has no basis in historical fact or practice. Numerous statements in the historic record order the flag to be raised on specific occasions only.

In addition, the flag images on the table below "Flags flown before 1927" are also incorrect: The civil ensign was used by the Russian-American Company until 1806, after that the RAC flag until 1881 (in Russia; 1867 in North America)

Please remove the Russian naval jack (1729 – July 8, 1799) and replace it with the civil ensign, and place the correct dates for the RAC's use in Alaska: 1806-1867. Ltkizhi (talk) 02:43, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

I have replaced nuclearvacum's flag again, and will continue to do so, as the continued insertion of his design in preference to an original, historic illustration from the time period (1806) amounts to "vandalism". His version is more than incorrect; it is wrong. The spelling of the Company's name is wrong, details (poorly rendered) on crowns and in the design are wrong, and the overall effect of modern computer rendering is incompatable with an historic flag when an original illustration is available. It would be a service to Wikipedia readers to remove all references to nuclearvacum's design(Ltkizhi (talk) 15:28, 26 March 2015 (UTC))