Mr. Williamson was our tour's docent for the museum. Mr. Williamson was incredibly knowledgeable of flag history, or as he told us, vexillology. He alos mention to us that he was writing a book on the Presidential flag and it should hopefully go to print soon!
We started the tour in the Defenders of Freedom room. This room pays tribute to the different branches of military of the United States of America. Mr. Williamson pointed out different flags and gave a brief background for each.
Next, we made our way into the Birth of a Nation room. Here we learned about the first flags of our great nation. Mr. Williamson pointed out different flags from countries that explored the region and gave brief history lessons that aren't taught in schools and rarely are known by citizens. It was quite intriguing.
This is a Braille flag for those that are sight impaired.
We learned about the origin of the Don't Tread on Me flag and why it has a rattlesnake on it. We noticed a strange red flag with a pattern on it that resembled a fish or bear claw. Mr. Williamson gave the unique story of this flag of the flag and the romantic ending it created. He bewildered us with a red hat on a wooden pole. We didn't know what it was, but learned it was the Liberty Hat. This was an interesting story. I don't think any of us will forget about the Liberty Hat. We learned that Betsy Ross was not the maker or designer of the first flag of the U.S.A. We noticed that the stars on various flags of the U.S.A. had different numbers of points.
The Star Spangle Banner
We made our way into the Price of Liberty room and learned about flags flown from the War of 1812 to our current wars in Afghanistan. Mr. Williamson pointed out the flags of the Confederacy. He explained that the flag so commonly referred to as the Confederate flag was actually the battle flag of the Tennessee Army.
Finally, we entered the United States of America room. All twenty-seven flags of the U.S.A. were displayed, from thirteen to fifty stars. Under each of the U.S.A. flags were the accompanied States for each flag. Also, in the room were territorial flags and the presidential flags. Mr. Williamson explained in detail the presidential flag and how it is made. This is also the topic of the book he is writing.
Mr. Williamson explained we only heard stories of thirty of the three hundred flags in the museum. We have at least two hundred seventy more flags to learn about! We were extremely impressed by our visit to the House of Flags and plan on returning to learn much more!
