Flag of Washington

The first evidence of a state flag bearing similarity to the present official one relates to one designed by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). In 1914 the national society of the DAR asked the state organization to send a state flag to Washington D.C. to be hung in the DAR Memorial Continental Hall. Finding in Olympia that there was no state flag, a committee of the DAR chaired by Mrs. SJ Chadwick, wife of the then Justice of the Supreme Court Stephen J Chadwick worked on a flag design. The flag they designed is described as having 'a green background for the Evergreen State, upon which was the seal of the State of Washington...' The banner was used in Memorial Continental Hall and then returned to Washington in April, 1916 to hang behind the speaker's table at the annual state assembly of the DAR. In 1929 the DAR presented a state flag to Governor Roland H Hartley who received it on behalf of the state. This banner is still to be found in the official reception room of the Capitol. In 1923 the State Legislature and Senate adopted Senate Bill 154 into law without the Governor's signature to establish the official flag of the State of Washington.