Flag of Indiana
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| Name | in flag |
|---|---|
| Proportion | 2:3 or 3:5 |
| Adopted | May 31, 1917 (standardized in 1955) |
| Design | A gold torch surrounded by an outer circle of thirteen stars, an inner semi circle of five stars, and a 19th, larger, star at the top of the torch, crowned by the word 'Indiana', representing Indiana's admission to the Union as the 19th state. |
| Designed by | Paul Hadley |
The flag of Indiana was designed by Paul Hadley and officially adopted by the state of Indiana on May 31, 1917. It was the state's first official flag and has remained unchanged since then except for the creation of a statute to standardize the production of the flag.
To commemorate the state’s 1916 centennial anniversary, the Indiana General Assembly issued a resolution to adopt a state flag. At the request of the General Assembly, a contest was sponsored by the Indiana Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to design a flag to serve as the official state banner. As an incentive to increase the number of submissions, the contest offered the winner a one hundred dollar cash prize. More than two hundred submissions were received and examined by the Society before a winner was selected. The entry created by Paul Hadley of Mooresville, Indiana, was ultimately chosen as the winner of the contest and the cash prize.
On May 31, 1917, the flag was chosen as the state's official banner. The General Assembly made only one change to Hadley's original design: they added the word Indiana, in a crescent shape, over the top of the torch. The state banner was later renamed the state's flag in a new statute passed in 1955 that also standardized the dimensions of the flag.
The flag consists of a gold torch that represents liberty and enlightenment; the rays around the torch represent their far-reaching influence. The nineteen stars represent Indiana's place as the nineteenth state to join the United States. The thirteen stars in the outer loop symbolize the original Thirteen Colonies, the five inner stars represent the next five states added to the Union, and the one large star above the torch represents Indiana.
In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) placed Indiana's flag 32nd in design quality out of the 72 Canadian provincial, U.S. state and U.S. territorial flags ranked.
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