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Flag Requests PDF Print E-mail

As a resident of Maine's Second District, you may request that a U.S Flag be sent to you, which has been flown over the Capitol Building. For a small fee, you may have a flag flown for an individual, group, or institution, or to commemorate a particular occasion (i.e. birthday). The flag will be accompanied by an authentication certificate stating that it was flown over the Capitol.

Click here for a U.S. Flag order form

Please print out the flag order form and return the completed form, with your check, to my Washington office. We can only accept check and money order payments made out to "The Office Supply Account of Michael H. Michaud."

NOTE: Because of demand, please allow as much as two months to receive your flag. 

The History of the U.S. Flag*
The Stars and Stripes originated as a result of a resolution adopted by the Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia on June 14, 1777.  The resolution read:

"Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation. "

The resolution gave no instruction as to how many points the stars should have, nor how the stars should be arranged on the blue union.  Consequently, some flags had stars scattered on the blue field without any specific design, some arranged the stars in rows, and some in a circle.  The first Navy Stars and Stripes had the stars arranged in staggered formation in alternate rows of threes and twos on a blue field.  Other Stars and Stripes flags had stars arranged in alternate rows of four, five and four.  Some stars had six points while others had eight.

Strong evidence indicates that Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was responsible for the stars in the U.S. flag.  At the time that the flag resolution was adopted, Hopkinson was the Chairman of the Continental Navy Board's Middle Department. Hopkinson also helped design other devices for the Government including the Great Seal of the United States.  For his services, Hopkinson submitted a letter to the Continental Admiralty Board asking "whether a Quarter Cask of the public Wine will not be a proper & reasonable Reward for these Labours of Fancy and a suitable Encouragement to future Exertions of a like Nature."  His request was turned down since the Congress regarded him as a public servant.

For more information on our flag, click on the links below:

*Information provided by the Federal Citizen Information Center

State of Maine flag -- You can also request a State of Maine flag through your State Legislator or the Governor's office.  To request a flag directly, call (207) 287-1400.