Missouri State Flag

Adopted on March 22, 1913.

Nearly 100 years after achieving statehood, Missouri adopted an official flag on March 22, 1913.

The flag was designed by the late Mrs. Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver, wife of former State Senator R.B. Oliver. The flag consists of three horizontal stripes of red, white and blue. These represent valor, purity, vigilance and justice. In the center white stripe is the Missouri coat-of-arms, circled by a blue band containing 24 stars, denoting that Missouri was the 24th state. (RSMo 10.020)

1. The motto "United We Stand, Divided we Fall"
2. The right section representing the United States
3. The left section containing a moon representing a new state and a grizzly bear standing for courage.

Flag, official--design of--original design--where kept.
10.020. The official flag of the state of Missouri is rectangular in shape and its vertical width is to the horizontal length as seven is to twelve. It has one red, one white and one blue horizontal stripe of equal width; the red is at the top and the blue at the bottom. In the center of the flag there is a band of blue in the form of a circle enclosing the coat of arms in the colors as established by law on a white ground. The width of the blue band is one-fourteenth of the vertical width of the flag and the diameter of the circle is one-third of the horizontal length of the flag. In the blue band there are set at equal distances from each other twenty-four five-pointed stars. The original copy of the design shall be kept in the office of the secretary of state. The flag shall conform to the design set out on page xxx, RSMo.

(RSMo 1939 § 15438, RSMo 1949 § 10.080, A.L. 1957 p. 726)
Prior revisions: 1929 § 14313; 1919 § 11609

CROSS REFERENCE: Flag desecration, penalty, RSMo 578.095