Flag of the United States Virgin Islands
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The flag of the United States Virgin Islands was adopted on May 17, 1921. It consists of a simplified version of the coat of arms of the United States between the letters V and I (for 'Virgin Islands'). The yellow-colored eagle holds a sprig of laurel in one talon,<ref name="govvi">Template:Cite web</ref> which symbolizes victory, and three blue arrows in the other (unlike the thirteen arrows in the US coat of arms), which represent the three major islands that make up the U.S. Virgin Islands: Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, and Saint John.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> When the U.S. Virgin Islands were owned by Denmark, the flag was a blue ensign with the Danish flag, or Dannebrog ('cloth of the Danes'), in the canton.
History
Prior to Transfer Day 1917, the Danish colonial administration used a simple flag modeled on the blue ensign with the flag of Denmark in its canton. The Danish flag is popularly said to have fallen from the sky during a 1219 battle of the Danish king Valdemar II during the Livonian Crusade against the Estonians.<ref name="denmarkflags">Template:Cite web</ref> The Nordic Cross on the flag represents Christianity.<ref>Template:Cite book
Inge Adriansen, Nationale symboler, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2003, p. 129: "Fra begyndelsen af 1400-tallet kan Dannebrog med sikkerhed dokumenteres som rigsflag, det vil sige statsmagtens og kongens flag" (English: "Dannebrog can with certainty be documented as flag of the realm, that is the flag of the authority of state and of the king, from the beginning of the 1400s")</ref>
The idea of a U.S. Virgin Islands flag began with the administration of Rear Admiral Sumner Ely Wetmore Kittelle, who was sworn in as governor of the islands on April 26, 1921. He approached Mr. White, captain of the Grebe, and Percival Wilson Sparks, a cartoonist, and asked them for suggestions for a flag design. Sparks immediately drew a design on paper. Afterwards, Sparks transferred it on heavy cotton material, then asked his wife Grace and her sister Blanche Joseph to embroider the design.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The later result was what became the United States Virgin Islands flag.
Transfer Day
Transfer Day commemorates the transfer of sovereignty over the islands from Denmark to the United States, which was first marked at an official ceremony in 1917 by the lowering of the Danish flag and the raising of the American flag in Charlotte Amalie.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The United States had bought the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million, which eventually meant changing the flag to represent the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
- Seal of the United States Virgin Islands
- Flags of the U.S. states and territories
- Flag of the British Virgin Islands
References
Further reading
- The Umbilical Cord: The History of the United States Virgin Islands from Pre-Columbian Era to the Present (1995), by Harold W.L. Willocks