Like a handful of other states, Iowa owes its flag to the Daughters of the American Revolution. State Regent and Knoxville resident Dixie Cornell Gebhardt designed the Iowa flag in 1917.
Gebhardt wrote that the flag should represent all of Iowa history from “its occupation by the Indians” through statehood and to the present. She hoped it could maintain “a design so simple that school children and adults can recognize its symbolism.”
This Iowa flag was officially adopted March 29, 1921.
The Iowa flag is an unequal vertical tricolor of blue, white, and red.
Within the white stripe, the widest of the three, an eagle is charged with blue streamers in its beak upon which the words “Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain” are inscribed.
Below the eagle and streamers, the word “Iowa” is inscribed in red.
France
Note: Iowa was once a French territory and borrows its three stripes from the French national flag.
the United States
admission to the U.S. as a free state, Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain
The flag’s blue, white, and red are borrowed from the French flag, but Gebhardt meant for them to have additional symbolic meaning.
The blue represents loyalty, justice, and truth. The white represents purity and the red stands for courage.
Though not specified in Iowa statute, the flag is usually produced with a proportion of 2:3.
The width of the white middle stripe should be twice the width of each of the other stripes.
