47-star US flag on display at Tularosa Basin Museum
It’s interesting, from a historian’s point of view, to see the evolution of a historical artifact.
The most mundane bauble of present day, be it a coffee cup, can opener or pocketknife, are so abundant that only collectors see fit to keep them past their normal lifecycle.
In a few decades, these items are still, by in large, without any true historical purpose, unless they were owned or used by someone important. But, on a long enough timeline, such items cannot only be the center of a prized historical collection but could also be invaluable to historians in decoding a bygone age, and perhaps gleaning some long-lost fact that might better inform the modern public.
Oddly enough, the Tularosa Basin Museum of History (TBMH) has such an object: namely, a 47-star flag of the United States.
It has been nearly six decades since the U.S. flag has been updated, with the addition of both Hawaii and Alaska into the Union, which bumped the number of states of the nation, and thus stars on the flag, to 50. Before that, one has to look all the way back to 1912 when New Mexico and Arizona both transitioned from territorial status, and into full statehood, though these two states did not enter the Union at the same time but were separated by just over a month.
This slight gap created the space for a 47-star flag to exist.
Now, Congress moved no faster in 1912 than it moves today, and legislation was not passed to adopt the 47-star design as the nation’s banner, but rather waited the five weeks to see Arizona round the number of stars to 48.
While not legal, several sources started making 47-star flags for the newly minted state of New Mexico, and it is no surprise that the largest known collection of such flags exist inside the state, specifically at the Palace of the Governors, in Santa Fe.
The flag in the Tularosa Basin Museum of History, oddly enough, was not discovered in the state, but rather in a small-town tavern in Blue Lake California, by one Ward Topping, who ran said tavern from 1976-1982.
When he sold the bar he took several items with him, to include an American flag, which he paid little attention to at the time. It was not until the 1990s that Topping noticed the unfamiliar configuration of stars on his U.S. flag; five rows of eight stars, with a sixth row of only seven stars. After carefully counting the stars time and time again, Topping realized what he had.
Luck has it that Topping was born and raised in Alamogordo, and quickly returned the 47-star flag to the state of its birth, and graciously donated it to the TBMH, where it went on display in February 1999. The only other prominent 47-star flag outside the state of New Mexico is in the collection of the Fort McHenry Monument, though this flag started its life as a 46-star flag and was updated somewhere along the way.
Topping’s flag, which currently is the only known 47-star flag to be publicly displayed in the nation, represents a brief sliver of time when the Territory of New Mexico, after several decades of failed attempts, was finally awarded full statehood, and briefly had the honor of being the newest addition to the Union, until the following month, in February 1912, when Arizona, its neighbor to the west, was also granted statehood.
A flag, of any nation or time, truly highlights the importance that objects play in the telling of history. At its core, this object is but a grouping of fibers; dyed in a fashion that tells the polite observer that it represents a higher purpose, namely the spirit, drive, and rocky past of a nation.
It is only when such a purpose is forgotten to history that national symbols degrade into relics of a bygone age, and its left to historians and their ilk to try and scrounge up these lost memories, for the betterment of the modern day.
For more information about the TBHM, call 575-434-4438 or visit the museum at 1004 N. White Sands Blvd.
Jeffrey A. Weiler is a volunteer docent at the Tularosa Basin Historical Society Museum of History who has a very strong background in history.