More Kansas State Flag Trivia
Commentary
The Sunflower on Blue Banner Mystery
A Flag-Like Banner?
Several sites regarding the history of the Kansas state flag refer to a banner (not a flag) of a lone sunflower on a blue background, but there is some confusion on who exactly designed the banner and what it’s official use was for (especially since it looks more like a flag than a banner).
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According to an old Kansas Historical Society (KHS), one Albert T. Reid, a Topeka artist, was the one who created the banner as a popular option for the state flag, but other searches (including within KHS’s own website) for Mr. Reid give no indication he actually did any such design work.
Wikipedia references a citation that attributes the sunflower design to Adjutant General Joe Nickell, but initial searches for him also failed to bring up any references to his involvement in the creation of such a banner, despite him being a part of the state legislature at one point.
Green with Envy
Further searches around the Sunflower on Blue banner failed to bring up any good sources, but the Reddit vexillology sub-reddit eventually revealed this gem, which was backed up by a link to our friends a the KHS to validate the claim.
Interestingly, according the KHS site, one reason this banner wasn’t followed up on was because the sunflower was viewed by many as a noxious weed. Regardless, this banner is obviously a banner and also does not have a blue background.
Blue is Back, Baby!
Well, another look through Reddit’s comments gives us, finally, a picture of an actual blue backed sunflower banner, which apparently resides in the Governor’s office now:
Finally! Well, almost.
There’s some confusion, even between the KHS website pages, on which banner, the green or the blue one, is the official state banner. It’s possible both are, though the green one appears more authentic for a banner that was created in 1925 (and KHS also says the blue was created in 1955, 25 years after the fact).
A few things still stand out as questions:
- Is the banner actually the official banner of Kansas? Is so, which one, and does the state legislature have a record of the act?
- Under what capacity is the blue banner being used (other than as a decoration in the Governor’s office)?
- It was converted to a flag image (for use on Wikipedia at the bare minimum); is this image used in any official capacity, or was it just some artist’s rendition of the above one?
- Who actually was the designer of the banner (green or blue)? Both Mr. Reid and General Nickell were contemporaries and could have worked on it, but there is no solid evidence than either man actually had a hand in the design.
All of this evidence has been collected thus far by Internet searches. Additional inquiries may be made later, but if you have information or insight that you’d like to share, let us know!