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At the beginning of the 20th century, many U.S. states adopted their first official flags. As various chapters had done in a number of other states, the Daughters of the American Revolution took an active role in creating a state flag for Iowa. The organization recommended a white banner bearing a flying bald eagle and a ribbon emblazoned with the state motto ("Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain"), with the name of the state below. The War Council of Iowa, set up to coordinate state involvement in World War I, approved this flag. Examples were sent with Iowa troops to Europe, but official recognition by the state legislature was delayed. A Civil War veterans' organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, was opposed to any state flag. The veterans felt that they and their dead comrades had sacrificed themselves in support of the Union and that a state flag was contrary to the ideal of national unity. Therefore the designation state banner was used to avoid the term state flag. The banner approved by the legislature on March 29, 1921, was similar to the earlier one, except that it had a blue stripe along the hoist and a red stripe in the fly. This recalled the French Tricolor, which had flown over Iowa prior to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The new flag was designed by Dixie C. Gebhardt, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. |
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Iowa
Official name: State of Iowa.
State nickname: the Hawkeye State.
Total area: 56,276 sq mi, 145,754 sq km.
Population (2000): 2,926,324.
Population by race, origin (1997): white non-Hispanic 94.7%; white Hispanic 1.7%; black (including Hispanic) 2.0%; American Indian/Eskimo/Aleut 0.3%; Asian/Pacific Islander 1.3%.
Natural increase rate per 1,000 population (1995): 3.1 (U.S. avg. 6.0).
Gross domestic (state) product (1996): U.S.$76,300,000,000 (U.S.$26,790 per capita).
Land use (1992): federal land 0.5%; non-federal land 99.5%, of which forest 5.4%, cropland 70.3%, pasture 10.4%, rangeland 0.0%, urban and built-up areas 5.0%, other 8.4%.
Exports by state (1997): U.S.$5,118,000,000; percent of national total 0.83%.
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