Flag of Kansas

Kansas State Flag

KansasflagofKSwaving.jpg

Flag of Kansas

Flag of Kansas; photo by Les Stockton on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / share alike).

Official State Flag of Kansas

The state flag of Kansas (adopted in 1927) features the Kansas state seal on a field of dark blue. All State Flags

Above the seal is the state crest; a sunflower (official state flower of Kansas) resting on a twisted blue and gold bar that represents the Louisiana Purchase (the original Louisiana Purchase territory is now divided among 13 states). Beneath the state seal is the word KANSAS in yellow capital letters.

Symbols on Kansas Seal

The symbols on the state seal of Kansas were specified by the first Kansas legislature in 1861(the year Kansas became one of the United States). All State Seals

The rising sun represents the east; the river and steamboat are symbols of commerce; the cabin, and the settler and plow horses represent agriculture as the base for the future prosperity of the state of Kansas.

In the distance oxen draw a wagon train west, and a herd of buffalo is pursued by two native Americans on horseback (the American buffalo was adopted as the official state animal of Kansas in 1955); herds of buffalo numbering in the millions once roamed Kansas (correct name is "American bison").

In the sky are thirty-four stars (Kansas was the thirty-fourth state admitted to the Union) with the state motto above: "Ad astra per aspera "("To the stars through difficulties").

Kansas

Images

Kansas legislature designated an official state banner in 1925 which featured a sunflower and the state seal on a blue field. Many felt it was not "a proper state flag," and legislation was passed in 1927 which recognized the current flag of Kansas as the official state flag. Image copied from James H. Nottage and Floyd R. Thomas Jr.'s article from the autumn 1985 Kansas History magazine, "There's No Place Like Home" (published here under the principle of fair use).

Kansas state banner

Center design on the flag of Kansas; public domain image on Wikipedia.

Center design on Kansas state flag