The Ohio flag is unlike any other U.S. flag due to its unique shape. It’s the only flag that isn’t a rectangle and is instead a swallow-tailed burgee.
It was designed by Cleveland architect John Eisenmann in 1901 for the Pan-American Exposition in New York, created to fly over the Ohio Building.
The flag was officially adopted May 9, 1902.
The Ohio flag is a broad pennant featuring three red and two white horizontal stripes.
A blue triangle extends from the hoist, its apex at the center of the middle red stripe.
Upon the blue triangle, a white circle surrounds an inset red disc. Seventeen white five-pointed stars surround.
the hills and valleys of the Ohio landscape
rivers, roadways
the “O” of Ohio, the buckeye (the nut that falls from the buckeye tree)
the original thirteen colonies and the four states that followed (Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio)
The Ohio flag is similar to other state flags in its colors, utilizing the classic red, white, and blue of the U.S. national flag.
John Eisenmann obtained a U.S. patent for his Ohio flag design and created detailed specification diagrams, simplified and recreated here.
The flag has an 8:13 proportion.
Many flag makers, rather than create the Ohio flag’s unique shape, print the Ohio flag on a rectangular field of white.
