The Pine & Star

The Story of Maine’s Original 1901 State Flag

Long before Maine’s familiar blue state flag, there was something simpler flying above the Pine Tree State.

• A warm buff field.
• A single green pine tree.
• A blue North Star.

No crowded seal. No tiny figures. No lettering that disappeared when the wind caught the fabric.

In 1901, Maine adopted a state flag designed to be recognized instantly—from a harbor, a parade route, a military field, or a distant hillside. For eight years, the pine-and-star banner represented Maine before the state replaced it in 1909 with the coat-of-arms-on-blue design familiar today.

Then something unusual happened. The first flag nearly disappeared from memory.

For much of the twentieth century, it survived quietly in old laws, newspaper descriptions, a few pieces of artwork, and a remarkably small number of original flags.

More than a century after it was lowered, Mainers began discovering it again.

And what had once been forgotten became one of the most recognizable unofficial symbols of modern Maine.

THE 1901 MAINE FLAG AT A GLANCE

BEFORE MAINE HAD AN OFFICIAL STATE FLAG

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Maine already possessed a long-established state coat of arms. What it did not have was one universally recognized official state flag.

Military units carried banners. Government symbols appeared in different forms. Ships needed recognizable signals.

But Maine lacked one standardized banner that immediately told someone:

That is Maine.

The timing was right for change. Work at the State House and interest in a more recognizable flag helped create an opportunity to establish an official design.

The question was what that design should look like.

JOHN T. RICHARDS & A DIFFERENT IDEA

One of the central figures in the story was Adjutant General John T. Richards, a Civil War veteran and head of Maine’s militia.

Instead of placing the entire state seal on a dark field, Richards proposed something dramatically simpler.

His design used only three major elements:

• a buff field
• a green pine
• a blue North Star

The idea drew directly from Maine itself.

The pine represented the state whose forests had given it the enduring nickname The Pine Tree State. The star connected the design to Dirigo, Maine’s motto meaning “I lead.”

It was unmistakably local.

And unlike a complicated seal, it could be understood quickly.

A FLAG DESIGNED TO BE SEEN

A flag does not hang still like a painting.

• It folds.
• It twists.
• It snaps in the wind.
• It may be seen from hundreds of yards away.

That makes simplicity valuable.

The pine-and-star design worked because its most important elements remained visible even when the flag was moving.

From a distance, a viewer saw:

• buff
• green pine
• blue star

Nothing else was necessary. That practicality was especially useful in a state defined by both inland forests and a long maritime coastline.

A banner needed to work from a State House dome. It also needed to work from the water.

THE BILL MOVES THROUGH AUGUSTA

The proposal gained support from Maine’s Military Affairs Committee.

Representative Frederick Walls of Vinalhaven introduced the revised legislation and moved it forward with an “ought to pass” recommendation.

Then, on March 21, 1901, the Maine Legislature unanimously adopted the design as Chapter 233.

Maine finally had its first official state flag.

WHAT THE FLAG LOOKED LIKE

The official design was remarkably spare. Imagine a rectangular field of buff, a warm beige or light tan. At the center stands a green pine tree. Near the upper hoist corner is a blue five-pointed North Star.

That was it.

No state seal. No lettering. No banner reading DIRIGO. No farmer or seaman. No moose. No shield.

The flag communicated Maine through symbols rather than a miniature illustration.

THE PINE TREE

Few symbols could have represented Maine more naturally. The Eastern white pine had been central to the region’s history for generations.

Its significance reached into:

• shipbuilding
• timber
• logging
• settlement
• trade
• wilderness identity

Maine was already known as The Pine Tree State. Putting a pine at the center of the flag allowed the banner to identify the state without spelling out its name.

The tree did the work.

MORE THAN JUST A TREE

The original artwork contained details that have encouraged later interpretation.

The pine was depicted with visible roots, and some interpretations have associated three prominent roots with the three branches of government. The illustration also included truncated lower limbs that have sometimes been given symbolic meanings.

Whether every one of those details was intended to carry a specific hidden message is less important than the larger effect.

• The tree looked alive.
• Rooted.
• Individual.
• Strong.

A single pine on an otherwise open field became an unusually direct symbol of place.

THE NORTH STAR

The second major symbol sat above and toward the hoist.

A blue five-point North Star.

Its meaning connected naturally with Maine’s motto:

DIRIGO — “I LEAD”

For generations, Polaris had been associated with navigation and orientation.

That symbolism had special meaning in a state where mariners were accustomed to thinking in terms of compass directions, coastlines, stars, and safe navigation.

The North Star also reinforced Maine’s identity as a northern state. The pine rooted the flag to the land.

The star gave it direction.

WHY BUFF?

The background was officially described as buff.

• Think warm canvas.
• Parchment.
• Light tan.

It was a color with historic military and colonial associations, but it also performed an important visual function.

Against buff:

• the green tree stood out
• the blue star stood out
• the flag remained distinctive

The color also separated Maine from the increasingly common practice of simply placing a state seal on a blue background.

The 1901 flag did not blend into the crowd. It looked like Maine.

WHY THE DESIGN WORKED

The original flag possessed several advantages that remain central to flag design today.

• SIMPLE – Its basic elements could be remembered and reproduced easily.
• DISTINCT – It did not resemble dozens of other state banners.
• MEANINGFUL – Every major element related directly to Maine.
• LEGIBLE – The design remained recognizable from far away.
• REVERSIBLE – Without complicated lettering, the flag could be understood from either side.

Its simplicity was not a lack of meaning. It was what allowed the meaning to remain visible.

MAINERS PUT THE FLAG TO WORK

The pine-and-star did not remain confined to legislation. It began appearing in the places where Mainers encountered official and civic identity.

• The flag flew from the Maine State House.
• It appeared at military drills.
• It was carried during parades.
• It appeared at schools and public celebrations.
• It went onto the water.

For eight years, the design became part of ordinary public life.

ABOVE THE STATE HOUSE

Perhaps its most important location was Augusta.

Flying from the State House dome, the pine-and-star represented Maine government itself. Against the sky, its buff field and bold symbols could be distinguished far more easily than a complicated coat of arms.

The flag had been designed to work at a distance. The dome gave it exactly that opportunity.

ON THE DRILL FIELD

Maine’s militia and later National Guard traditions were closely connected with the development of the flag.

Military use demanded a design that could remain identifiable in movement. The pine and star appeared on drill flags and other military-related materials.

The Adjutant General’s office maintained an official pattern so reproductions could follow a recognizable standard.

Its straightforward geometry also made it relatively easy to reproduce through:

• sewing
• painting
• printing
• embroidery

A complicated emblem could disappear in folds. A pine and star remained a pine and star.

ON THE WATER

Maine’s maritime identity made visibility especially important. The flag was used as a yacht jack and in harbor settings. One documented example involved the state yacht Seagull in 1904.

This was an environment where the design’s strengths became obvious.

• Distance mattered.
• Wind mattered.
• Contrast mattered.

A green tree and blue star against buff could be identified without anyone needing to inspect a tiny seal.

PARADES, SCHOOLS & OLD HOME WEEK

The flag also reached ordinary Mainers through civic life.

It appeared in:

• parades
• Old Home Week celebrations
• school events
• small hand flags
• souvenir pins
• public decorations

For Mainers living outside the state, the banner could become a portable symbol of home.

Maine organizations in cities such as Boston and New York could fly the pine-and-star as an immediate visual connection to the state.

MAINE ON THE NATIONAL STAGE

The flag also appeared in connection with large exhibitions and fairs. The pine-and-star design represented Maine at a time when states were increasingly using banners, exhibitions, and public displays to advertise themselves to national audiences.

Against a field of complicated seals and similar banners, Maine possessed something immediately recognizable.

• A pine.
• A star.

A color combination unlike nearly anything surrounding it.

THE FLAG BECAME FAMILIAR FAST

One of the remarkable things about the 1901 flag is how quickly it seemed to make sense. People did not need an elaborate explanation. The pine already meant Maine. The North Star already fit Dirigo. The design spoke the visual language of the state.

That simplicity helped make what happened next seem particularly strange. Because only eight years after adopting its first official flag, Maine replaced it.

1909: MAINE CHANGES COURSE

In 1909, the Maine Legislature abandoned the pine-and-star design. The replacement followed a very different approach.

Instead of a buff field with two bold symbols, Maine adopted the state coat of arms on a deep blue field.

The new design included familiar elements from the state arms:

• a farmer
• a seaman
• a shield
• a pine
• a moose
• the North Star
• Dirigo

The pine had not vanished from Maine symbolism. But it was now only one element within a much larger composition.

WHY DID MAINE REPLACE IT?

Several factors contributed to the 1909 change. One was the influence of Civil War memory. Many legislators belonged to a generation deeply connected with Union military service. Dark Union blue carried strong patriotic associations. A blue military-style flag could therefore represent both state identity and the memory of wartime service.

Another factor was design fashion.

Across the United States, states increasingly adopted banners consisting of a seal or coat of arms on a dark blue field. Maine’s original flag had been distinctive.

The replacement made Maine more conventional.

CEREMONY OVER SIMPLICITY

The two flags represented almost opposite approaches.

Neither design was meaningless. They simply communicated Maine differently.

The 1901 flag said Maine through a few symbols. The 1909 flag attempted to tell a much fuller story.

THE 1909 FLAG BECOMES THE STANDARD

Once the law changed, the new blue banner appeared throughout Maine.

• Schools used it.
• State offices used it.
• Military and civic ceremonies used it.

Generations of Mainers grew up recognizing it as the state flag. As the decades passed, fewer people remembered that another official flag had existed before it.

The blue design became normal. The pine-and-star faded.

HOW DO YOU LOSE A STATE FLAG?

The original flag was not destroyed in some great political controversy. There was no dramatic statewide campaign to erase it. It simply stopped being used.

That distinction matters.

No major preservation effort appears to have gathered official examples. No large state collection retained a full-size government model that could continually remind future generations of what the flag looked like.

• Schools switched to the new banner.
• Government buildings switched.
• Public ceremonies switched.
• The old flag gradually disappeared from sight.

And once something disappears from daily life, memory can fade surprisingly quickly.

FRAGILE THINGS DISAPPEAR

Many examples of the 1901 flag were not massive outdoor banners made to survive for generations. Some were small silk hand flags. Others were pieces of printed bunting.

Those materials were fragile.

• Silk deteriorates.
• Fabric tears.
• Souvenirs get thrown away.
• Families clean attics.
• Objects lose their stories.

Within decades, a flag that had once represented the entire state could survive mainly as an obscure historical detail.

ONLY A HANDFUL SURVIVED

The number of known original examples eventually became remarkably small. Approximately five original examples are known to have survived, including small silk flags measuring roughly 12 by 18 inches.

Some surfaced far outside Maine. One was discovered folded inside an antique desk in California. Another belonged to a collector in Maryland.

At least one eventually returned to Maine. Their survival was partly luck.

THE PAPER PATTERN SURVIVES

One especially important artifact was not a fabric flag at all. An official 1901 lithograph preserved the design on paper. That mattered enormously.

Fabric versions could vary. Colors could fade.Trees could be interpreted differently. But an official period representation provided evidence of how the original flag was intended to appear.

The pine had roots. The star occupied its specified position. The buff, green, and blue arrangement could be reconstructed.

Without such surviving evidence, the modern revival might have looked very different.

A 1908 SURVIVOR

An original silk flag dated to 1908 also survived. Its survival was especially meaningful because it came from the final period before the design was replaced.

The object demonstrated something simple but important:

The 1901 flag had not merely existed as legislation or concept art.

Mainers actually carried it.

THE FLAG FALLS OUT OF MEMORY

By the middle of the twentieth century, the pine-and-star was largely absent from public life.

Most Mainers knew only the blue state flag. The first flag became something discovered through research rather than remembered through everyday experience.

Then, gradually, people began asking questions.

• What did Maine use before the current flag?
• Was there another design?
• What did it look like?

That curiosity opened the door to rediscovery.

EARLY ATTEMPTS TO BRING IT BACK

Long before the modern boom, there were legislative attempts to restore the old design.

In 1991, a proposal reached committee but received no votes. Another effort followed in 1997. That time it received one. Hardly a political revolution.

But something had changed. The forgotten flag was once again part of the conversation.

THEN THE ORIGINALS STARTED REAPPEARING

Collectors and historians continued documenting surviving artifacts. Private discoveries brought physical examples into view. Exhibitions allowed people to see the design instead of merely reading descriptions of it.

And as digital history made obscure images easier to share, the old pine-and-star reached audiences that previous generations of historians could only have dreamed of.

A design that had spent decades buried in records was suddenly extraordinarily easy to reproduce.

2017: THE REVIVAL TAKES OFF

A major turning point came in 2017.

Portland makers Bethany and Kevin Field encountered the historic design and began producing hand-sewn versions through the Maine Flag Company. The response demonstrated just how powerful the old design still was.

Mainers wanted it. Not merely as an artifact. As something to fly.

That distinction transformed the flag from historical curiosity into living symbol.

THE FLAG ESCAPES THE FLAGPOLE

The revived pine-and-star did not remain limited to fabric flags. It spread rapidly through Maine visual culture.

Soon it appeared on:

• hats
• shirts
• decals
• stickers
• barn murals
• beer labels
• storefronts
• jackets
• mugs
• signs

The same simplicity that made the design effective in 1901 made it extremely adaptable more than a century later.

A pine and star could shrink onto a cap and remain recognizable.

• It could expand across a barn.
• It could become a logo.
• It could become a patch.

TWO DIFFERENT PINES EMERGE

The revival also created an interesting design debate. Two general versions became common.

• THE ROOTED 1901 PINE – This version tries to follow the original historic artwork more closely, including the recognizable rooted tree.
• THE STYLIZED PINE – Another popular version uses a simplified tree influenced by the pine appearing on Maine’s later maritime flag.

Both communicate essentially the same idea. But their differences sparked ongoing conversations about which image is the “real” historic flag.

That debate may actually have strengthened the revival. People began studying the original rather than merely displaying it.

FROM PORCHES BACK TO AUGUSTA

As the flag became more popular, political efforts to restore it also returned. In 2019, Representative Janice Cooper proposed adopting a design based on the 1901 flag.

The effort did not succeed.

In 2021, Representative Sean Paulhus tried again. That proposal narrowly failed.

Then came another attempt.

2023: THE QUESTION GOES TO THE PEOPLE

In 2023, Paulhus reintroduced the proposal. This time, public hearings attracted substantial interest.

The question ultimately moved beyond the Legislature. Mainers would be asked directly whether the state should replace its existing official flag with a design based on the old pine-and-star.

More than a century after the original had been repealed, Maine’s first flag was headed for a statewide vote.

TWO VERY DIFFERENT IDEAS OF TRADITION

The debate revealed that both flags could claim history.

Supporters of the 1901 design emphasized:

• simplicity
• visibility
• distinctiveness
• Maine-specific symbolism
• widespread popular use

Supporters of the existing flag emphasized:

• familiarity
• continuity
• Civil War associations
• the state coat of arms
• more than a century of official use

The debate was therefore not simply:

old flag versus new flag.

Both were old. The question was which history Mainers wanted represented on the official flagpole.

THE CASE FOR THE PINE & STAR

Supporters argued that the 1901 flag did what a flag is supposed to do. It could be recognized immediately.

Its symbolism required almost no explanation.

Pine = Maine. North Star = Dirigo. Buff field = unmistakable background.

They also pointed to something difficult for government to manufacture: people were already using it.

The pine-and-star had become an unofficial flag through ordinary choice.

THE CASE FOR KEEPING THE BLUE FLAG

Opponents had history on their side too. The existing state flag had been official since 1909. Multiple generations had grown up beneath it.

Its coat of arms represented a wider collection of Maine symbols and traditions. The blue field also carried associations with Union military history and Maine’s Civil War generation.

Changing it could therefore be seen not as restoring history, but as replacing another historic tradition.

THE 2024 REFERENDUM

In 2024, Maine voters made the decision. The proposal would have replaced the existing state flag with the pine-tree design inspired by 1901.

The result was approximately:

55% NO

45% YES

The official flag remained unchanged.

THE OLD FLAG LOST THE VOTE BUT WON SOMETHING ELSE

A ballot result could determine what flew officially over Maine government. It could not determine what Mainers chose to put on their own porches.

The referendum dramatically increased public awareness of the historic design. People who had never heard of the 1901 flag encountered it. Some preferred the blue flag. Others immediately connected with the pine-and-star.

Either way, a design that had once nearly disappeared had become impossible to forget again.

THE PEOPLE’S FLAG

That is perhaps the strangest part of the story. The pine-and-star was official for only eight years. The blue flag has been official for more than a century.

Yet the older design has developed an enormous unofficial presence.

• It appears on homes.
• Businesses.
• Clothing.
• Vehicles.
• Local artwork.
• Signs.
• Products.

For many people, it functions as a visual shorthand for Maine even without legal recognition.

THEN & NOW

That transformation is unusual. A government symbol became forgotten.

Then ordinary people made it visible again.

WHY THIS FLAG CAME BACK

Historic designs are rediscovered all the time. Most never become popular again. The Maine flag did.

Why?

Its simplicity is part of the answer.

• It is easy to remember.
• Easy to reproduce.
• Easy to recognize.

But the symbolism matters just as much. The design speaks directly to the Maine landscape.

The pine suggests:

• woods
• logging
• wilderness
• resilience
• the Pine Tree State

The star suggests:

• north
• navigation
• leadership
• Dirigo

There is very little between the symbol and the place it represents.

A FLAG THAT FEELS OLDER THAN 1901

The design also has an interesting visual quality. Although officially adopted at the beginning of the twentieth century, the buff field and simple symbols can feel much older.

There is little in the design that ties it specifically to 1901.

It could almost belong to an earlier era of:

• maritime signals
• militia banners
• hand-sewn standards
• early American symbols

That timeless quality likely contributes to its modern appeal. It looks historic without looking complicated.

IT ALSO LOOKS MODERN

At the same time, the flag works remarkably well in contemporary graphic design.

A pine and star can become:

• a small icon
• a social-media image
• an embroidered patch
• a screen print
• a large mural
• a road sign
• a product mark

That is harder to accomplish with a detailed coat of arms.

The same quality that helped sailors recognize the design at a distance helps it survive on a one-inch embroidered patch today.

MEMORY SOMETIMES LIVES OUTSIDE MUSEUMS

The revival also tells a larger story about historic preservation. The state did not preserve the pine-and-star through continuous official use. For decades, it barely survived.

Instead, its return depended upon:

• collectors
• historians
• surviving artifacts
• old legislation
• newspaper descriptions
• designers
• craftspeople
• ordinary Mainers

The government had replaced the symbol. People eventually recovered it.

THE FLAG THAT CAME OUT OF THE ATTIC

There is something fitting about surviving examples appearing in antique collections and old furniture. That is how much local history survives. Not through grand monuments. Through objects someone decided not to throw away.

A silk flag folded into a drawer. A photograph with a banner in the background. An official print forgotten in a file. A newspaper clipping. A handwritten note.

Individually, those things seem small. Together, they can restore something almost completely lost.

TWO FLAGS, ONE MAINE

The modern debate does not necessarily require one flag’s history to erase the other.

The 1901 pine-and-star represents one approach to Maine identity.

• Simple.
• Direct.
• Rooted in the landscape.

The 1909 blue flag represents another.

• Heraldic.
• Ceremonial.
• Connected to the state coat of arms and generations of official use.

Both belong to Maine history. One remained official.

The other became something unusual:

a historic state flag transformed into a living unofficial emblem.

THE FLAG’S JOURNEY

The entire story can be reduced to a remarkable timeline:

1901

Maine adopts its first official state flag.

1909

The pine-and-star is repealed and replaced by the blue coat-of-arms flag.

MID-20TH CENTURY

The original design largely disappears from public memory.

LATE 20TH CENTURY

Collectors and historians begin recovering its story.

1991 & 1997

Early legislative restoration attempts fail.

2010s

The pine-and-star begins spreading rapidly through Maine culture.

2017

Modern hand-sewn reproductions help accelerate the revival.

2019–2023

Repeated legislative proposals bring the flag debate back to Augusta.

2024

Maine voters keep the existing official flag.

TODAY

The pine-and-star continues flying anyway.

A SYMBOL DOES NOT HAVE TO BE OFFICIAL TO MATTER

The 1901 flag demonstrates something interesting about civic identity. Governments can designate official symbols. But they cannot always determine which symbols people personally embrace.

The pine-and-star returned because Mainers chose to use it. There was no statewide order telling people to put it on barns. No requirement to sew it onto caps. No law requiring businesses to display it.

People simply liked it. They recognized something in it.

And that voluntary adoption gave the historic design a second life.

THE PINE STILL POINTS HOME

Imagine the flag as it appeared in 1901.

• Buff fabric lifting in the wind.
• A green pine standing at the center.
• A blue star above.

From a harbor, someone sees it. From a parade route, someone recognizes it. From the State House lawn, someone looks upward. No explanation is necessary.

There is Maine.

Then the flag disappears. Years become decades. The people who remember it grow old. The originals vanish into drawers, collections, and forgotten places. Eventually even the memory becomes obscure.

And then, a century later, the flag begins appearing again.

• First here and there.
• Then on porches.
• Then storefronts.
• Then hats.
• Then barns.
• Then political signs.
• Then the statewide ballot.

It never regained its official position. But perhaps that is only part of the story.

Because somewhere along the way, Maine’s first state flag became something it had never been in 1901.

A symbol rediscovered by the people themselves.

The law replaced it. Time nearly erased it. A handful of artifacts preserved it.

And Mainers put it back into the wind.

One pine. One North Star. One of the simplest symbols Maine ever chose.

And more than a century later, it still looks unmistakably like home.