Historic Hood River
Happy Flag Day
Notes
This image of B. L. Murphy with his Flag Drill Team seems appropriate for Flag Day (celebrated this Sunday), even though the image is dated February 22, 1902. Apparently they traveled to Buena Vista Oregon (in the Willamette Valley) for the event.
Note the name “Vera” inscribed over the dress of the girl to the lower right. I believe that is Vera Murphy, and given the somewhat childlike handwriting and spelling on the reverse I suspect she was the person who identified all the participants. My best attempt at transcribing the names: Harley Prather, ? Porvene, Bertha Rothchild, B. L. Murphy, Grant McLaughlin, James Nash, Nelson Anderson, Trissa Prather, Harry McCormick, Sadie McCormick, Edna Hall, Mandy McLaughlin, Lucy Butler, Clair Porvene, Vera Murphy.
Flag Day commemorates the day in 1777 when the Continental Congress adopted the stars and stripes, but it wasn’t observed nationally until 1916.
Vera Murphy was the daughter of B. L. and Lillie Murphy. It appears she was born in Monmouth in 1887, making her 14 or 15 in this image.
L.E.
45 stars in 1902.
Thorn
Did you know!
-Oregon had no official state flag for the first 66 years of statehood!
-Our flag was created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington–the “shot heard round the world”.
-Oregon was the 33rd state but our state flag was 48th!
-Oregon’s flag is the only in US to be two-sided!
-Our flag includes a British ship!
-Oregon’s flag designer is officially unknown, but two Meier & Frank seamstresses, Blanche Cox and Marjorie Kennedy, physically created our first official state flag in 1925
-Another Oregon flag symbol is the bald eagle, a species with reverse sexual dimorphism–females are up to a third bigger than the males–so all eagle symbols are actually female!
-Meanwhile, the beaver is a sexually monomorphic species–the males and females appear identical in size and shape with no visible genitalia–so our state animal is possibly female too!
-One of the original 1925 state flags still exists–on display in Eastern Oregon University in La Grande!
Rico
Once again, thanks for the in depth details @Thorn