The fourth NAVA 54 presentation was given by Scott Mainwaring. Mainwaring gave the award winning William Driver presentation of NAVA 54 on the topic of the American Thin Blue Line flag. The known history and over all impact of this flag was providentially timed, due to the current cultural crisis facing America and the Western World, with the issues of police brutality and racial injustice.
Much of the popularity of the Thin Blue Line US Flag can be traced to the efforts of Andrew Jacob. Jacob created the flag in 2014 and had the marketing know how, to push it to market as a freshman at the University of Michigan. The original design may have come from a flag patch that was inspired by the US or UK flag patch.
Another point of inspiration for the Thin Blue Line American flag is its derivation from the original black and blue police flag. The horizontal tribar of black, blue, and black honors officers that have fallen in the line of duty. Likewise the black and blue flag is the older thin blue line flag that represents all persons in law enforcement, irrespective of nationality.
Mainwaring also showed us that the thin blue line flag was replicated across national borders. To the left, versions of The Thin Blue Line flag for the UK, Canada, are Philippines visible.
Tje video below was also presented online. Scott pointed out this is one of the few unofficial flags to have quasi-official backing from the police department.
The computer app that hosted NAVA 54 was generously provided by Library of US Congress librarian Elizabeth Brown. Brown used the Cisco webexto host NAVA 54. Brown also gave us a lesson on using the Library of Congress's online features for research. Note that you don't have to be member of Congress of access the library's vast reservoir of books, images, and other media.
Brown demonstrated how to search the Library of Congress website. The example she provided was about You're a Grand Old Flag 1906 by George M. Cohan. It originally was called You're a Grand Old Rag. However due to peer pressure for reverence of the US flag, Rag was replaced with Flag.
The third scheduled presentation was a virtual tour of Rachel Phelan's conservator's studio in Dublin, Ireland. Much of her presentation centered on recent Irish immigrants to the United States who participated in the US Civil War. The Irish participated on both sides of the conflict, but the majority fought for the North. Many of the Irish-American units had green banners that used popular Irish icons to indicate their Irish heritage.
Phelan gave us a short tour of the conservation studio where historical flags and other items were being restored. To the left, you can see a Civil War flag presented to the Irish Brigade inducted in New York during the month of November 1862. Notice the Irish harp, sunburst, and shamrocks.
It reads: Presented by Citizens of New York in the 69th NYV (4th Regiment of the Irish Brigade) Brigadier Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher. Commanding. Below in cursive it reads: In grateful appreciation of their gallant and brilliant conduct on the Battle Fields of Virginia Maryland in the War to maintain National Domain and American Union.
Edwin Jackson gave a rich presentation on flags that have appeared on stamps across the world. Interesting to note is the first adhesive postage stamp to be created was in 1840, and is known as the black penny. This official government postage sticker was created on May 1, 1840. It featured the profile of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. In essence it is one of the most valuable stickers that anyone can hope to add to their sticker collection.
5¢ CSA Stamp
Edwin Jackson provided a spectacular array of historical stamps and contemporary postal cards used during the US Civil War. One Confederate Post Card had the a motto "DON'T TREAD ON US" with a red snake tied up on two early versions of the Confederate Flag. Underneath it also reads "EVER READY WITH OUR LIVES AND FORTUNES" which is just above the Georgia State Seal in blue. The lower post card features the second version of the Confederate Flag with what could have become the Confederate Pledge of Allegiance:
With our front in the field, swearing never to yield
The rights that we demand, or the deeds that we dare;
Then the Cross of the South in triumph remain,
To light is to freedom and glory again.
The Confederacy was able to create stamps of its own. You can see a cancelled 5¢ 'CONFEDERATE STATES" stamp that features Jefferson Davis. It was cancelled on November 4, 1862 in South Carolina.
Jackson showed us a stamp from El Salvador that matched with the pattern of the US flag but with inverted colours.
It really is too bad that El Salvador did not keep its original design flag from 1865. It would make it unique among her neighboring flags of Honduras and Nicaragua, which looks way too similar.
Jackson showed to us the first stamp to ever feature a flag. It was with Costa Rica with the Porte ½ Real in 1863. However it is nearly impossible to make out the flags.
Finally, the first US stamp to feature a flag from the USA was make in 1869 with US stamp # 121. Although it was not colour prefect, it was for 30¢. This was when the Union had 37 states, when Nebraska was the Baby in 1867. The 38th state would be Colorado which was still a territory.
The first presenter for NAVA 54 Online was John Andrews. Andrews, gave nn informative presentation on the flags that have flown over Iraq. In the slide above Andrews traced the origins of many of the Middle Eastern Arabic to flags that flew at the earlier part of the 1900s. These first colours of the Arab Revolt against the Turks would provide 'a representational framework.' Although many of these clubs were short lived, their impact would continue unto today in 2020. When the Otttomans 'cracked down on these Arab clubs' they 'gained reputations for subversive inclinations.'
Andrews also gave a stellar performance under the 'fire' of technical difficulties, maintaining composure and train of thought.
On Saturday June 13, 2020 NAVA held its first Cyberspace meeting, due to he Corona Virus outbreak of 2020. Since NAVA 54 took place in Cyberspace it also happened on Sunday June 14, due to the overlap of Time Zones. We had participants across the world participate from from Japan and Ireland. NAVA 54 was supposed to take place in St. Augustine, Florida. Although the meeting did not have an official place of designation, it was set to Eastern Standard Time (GMT -4:00). Since Ansoff is the president and it makes sense to view his locality as the designated geographic space for NAVA 54. Thus in manner of speaking, NAVA 54 took place in cyberspace, the anchor point for NAVA 54 in space and time was at Annadale, Virginia.
Any meeting in cyberspace can take place in two days of the calendar, so be that someone attending is across the dateline. Further, if someone is attending a meeting in cyberspace from Kiribati then it is possible that three calendar days expand as the official meeting date. However it must take place between the hours when today, tomorrow and yesterday appear: 10:00am to 12:00pm GMT.
As a part of the opening ceremonies, FIAV President Zeljko Heimer of Croatia gave the blessing and opening speech. He reiterated the values and core ideas of vexillology.
The International Maritime Flag for Lambda had many incarnations. No doubt ,this signal flag was used by several navies, nations, and communities across time. But its modern historical fame would begin as a pattern within the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. Lord Howe, Admiral of the Royal Fleet, put this pattern on the historical map in 1790 to indicate the numerical value of 'zero.' By the battle of Trafalgar in 1803 this pattern was coded to 'six,' since a copy of the code book was lost to potential enemies.
Then sometime in the middle of the 1800s this flag became associated with the letter 'S.' However with the USA it was associated with the letter 'J' and then with the number six. By WWII, the UK was code this pattern the number 7. Upon the dawn of the Space Age, all the major navies of the world would abandon this earliest of signal flags from the Enlightenment Era.
Today this flag well known to many of Generation X and below as the middle signal flag on a fictional restaurant at Bikini Bottom, The Krusty Krab. However, it has a Sinister Blue Tide—meaning that the hoist is blue with a blue bottom and the fly is white.
Since 2020 this flag has been rechristened as the Greek Letter Lambda. This new association gives the ancient pattern a new life. Since zero, six, seven, and the other letters already have established patterns, it makes sense to adopt this flag a new symbol.
