American flag colors meaning: documented history and official shades

Charles Thomson and the 1782 Great Seal report

Although Congress adopted a national flag in June 1777, designing an official national seal proved far more difficult. On July 4, 1776, the very afternoon Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, it appointed Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson to create a seal for the new republic. Their complex allegorical proposal was tabled, as were the designs of two later committees in 1780 and May 1782.

In June 1782, Congress turned the unfinished project over to its longtime secretary, Charles Thomson, who consulted with Philadelphia lawyer and amateur heraldry scholar William Barton. Thomson synthesized the strongest elements from all three committees into a unified design centered on the American bald eagle bearing a striped shield on its breast.

On June 20, 1782, Thomson presented his written report, titled “Remarks and Explanation,” to the Continental Congress, which approved it the same day. As documented in the U.S. Department of State official history of the Great Seal and the National Archives, Thomson explicitly linked the colors of the Great Seal’s shield to the colors already flying on the American flag:

“The colours of the pales are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the colour of the Chief, signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.”

Because Thomson explicitly stated that the colors on the shield were “those used in the flag of the United States of America,” the federal government, the Department of State, and historians have ever since recognized his 1782 explanation as the authoritative symbolic definition for the colors of both the Great Seal and the flag.

White: purity and innocence

In Thomson’s heraldic explanation, white corresponds to silver (argent) in traditional European armory. Applied to the young American republic, white signified purity of intention and innocence of ambition, reflecting the principle that the thirteen united colonies had taken up arms not for imperial conquest, but to secure self-governance and natural rights. On the flag, white forms six of the thirteen horizontal stripes and all fifty five-pointed stars in the canton.

Red: hardiness and valor

Red (gules in heraldry) was designated by Thomson to signify hardiness and valor. Written in 1782, just months after the Franco-American victory at Yorktown while peace negotiations in Paris were still underway, “hardiness and valor” reflected the physical endurance of the Continental Army and colonial militias through seven years of war. On the flag, red forms seven of the thirteen stripes, including both the top and bottom borders of the fly.

Blue: vigilance, perseverance, and justice

In the shield of the Great Seal, a broad blue horizontal band (the “Chief”) sits above the thirteen vertical red-and-white pales, representing Congress uniting the thirteen states. Thomson wrote that blue signifies vigilance, perseverance, and justice: the civic virtues required for a constitutional republic to endure after independence is won. On the American flag, that same deep blue forms the union (or canton) in the upper hoist corner, holding the constellation of white stars together.

Why the Continental Congress chose red, white, and blue in 1777

Before Charles Thomson penned his heraldic explanation in 1782, practical and historical reasons guided the Continental Congress’s use of red, white, and blue in 1777. As traced in our overview of American flag history, the colors grew directly out of earlier colonial and maritime banners.

When George Washington took command of the Continental Army outside Boston in January 1776, his forces raised the Continental Colors, later known as the Grand Union Flag. That banner featured thirteen alternating red and white stripes identical to the modern flag, but retained the British Union Jack (with the red cross of St. George and the white saltire of St. Andrew on a blue field) in the upper corner. At that moment, many colonists still hoped for reconciliation with the British Crown while defending their chartered rights as Englishmen.

Once the Declaration of Independence severed ties with Great Britain in July 1776, keeping the British Union Jack in the canton of American naval vessels became untenable. Replacing the British crosses with thirteen white stars on a blue field allowed American ship captains and regimental flagmakers to keep the familiar red, white, and blue cloth stocks already available in colonial ports. Maritime wool bunting in eighteenth-century Atlantic trade came predominantly in red, white (natural undyed wool), and indigo blue. By rearranging those three colors into thirteen stripes and a “new constellation” of stars, celebrated in popular tradition through the Betsy Ross flag, Congress created a distinct national emblem out of existing naval materials.

Documented history versus popular claims and folklore

Over two and a half centuries, patriotic speeches, nineteenth-century schoolbooks, and viral social media posts have layered numerous unverified claims over Charles Thomson’s 1782 text. Separating primary-source history from folklore makes the real history clearer.

The misattributed George Washington quote

One of the most widely repeated passages about the flag’s colors is attributed to George Washington:

“We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty.”

Although eloquent, Washington never wrote or spoke those words. Researchers searching the Papers of George Washington at the Library of Congress and the National Archives have confirmed that no such remark exists in his correspondence, diaries, or public addresses. Instead, the quote has been traced to a nineteenth-century drama and subsequent flag anthologies published in the 1860s and 1870s, decades after Washington’s death in 1799.

Claims that red represents “the blood of fallen soldiers”

In casual conversation, many people state that the red stripes on the American flag officially stand for the blood shed by patriots in battle. While the sacrifices of American service members are solemnly honored on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, Charles Thomson’s 1782 report used the words “hardiness & valour” rather than blood. Similarly, modern presidential proclamations, such as President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Proclamation 5475 designating the “Year of the Flag”, have offered poetic tribute (“red for courage and readiness to sacrifice; white for pure intentions and high ideals; and blue for vigilance and justice”) rather than new statutory definitions.

Claims that stripe positions have individual state assignments

Another persistent rumor claims that each of the seven red stripes and six white stripes is assigned to a specific colony in order of ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Neither the 1777 Flag Resolution nor the Flag Act of 1818 assigned individual colonies to specific red or white stripes. The thirteen stripes collectively honor the thirteen original states as a group, with red placed at the top and bottom edges so the flag’s outer borders remain clearly visible against bright clouds or pale sky.

Standard colors: Old Glory Red, White, and Old Glory Blue

Just as the symbolic meaning of the colors was left out of the 1777 resolution, the exact shades of red and blue were left to individual flagmakers for more than a century and a half. Early flags varied widely depending on local dye vats: some eighteenth- and nineteenth-century flags featured pale sky-blue cantons and orange-tinted madder red stripes, while naval flags made from British wool bunting used dark navy blue.

When the federal government standardized flag manufacturing in the twentieth century, first through President William Howard Taft’s Executive Order 1637 in 1912 and later through President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10834 in 1959, procurement agencies also standardized the exact cloth shades used for government flags.

Federal textile specifications (Cable numbers)

Because official flags are sewn from dyed fabric rather than printed with ink, the federal government’s primary standard relies on physical textile swatches maintained by the Color Association of the United States (CAUS, formerly the Textile Color Card Association). Under General Services Administration Federal Specification DDD-F-416, the three colors of the American flag are defined in the Standard Color Reference of America (10th edition) by specific Cable numbers:

• Old Glory Red: Cable No. 70180
• White: Cable No. 70001
• Old Glory Blue: Cable No. 70075

Print and digital equivalents (Pantone and RGB)

When federal agencies, embassies, and designers reproduce the flag in print or on digital screens, physical wool or nylon swatches must be translated into ink and pixel values. According to official guidelines published by the U.S. Embassy & Consulates and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the recognized print and digital cross-references for the flag’s colors are:

Official Color Name	CAUS Textile Standard	Pantone (PMS) Equivalent	U.S. State Dept. RGB	Approximate Hex
Old Glory Red	Cable No. 70180	PMS 193 C	187, 19, 62	#BB133E
White	Cable No. 70001	White	255, 255, 255	#FFFFFF
Old Glory Blue	Cable No. 70075	PMS 282 C	0, 33, 71	#002147

Notice how dark Old Glory Blue is compared to standard royal blue. That deep navy shade preserves the heritage of indigo-dyed maritime bunting and ensures high visual contrast around the fifty white stars. Likewise, Old Glory Red is a rich crimson with a subtle cool undertone rather than a bright fire-engine orange-red.

Wearing red, white, and blue with respect

Understanding the documented meaning of the flag’s colors (purity and innocence, hardiness and valor, vigilance, perseverance, and justice) adds depth to how Americans display the banner at home and wear patriotic colors on national holidays like Flag Day and the Fourth of July.

A common question among conscientious citizens is whether wearing red, white, and blue flag graphics on clothing complies with federal flag customs. As detailed in our guide to flag etiquette, the U.S. Flag Code states in 4 U.S.C. § 8(d) that “the flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery,” and in § 8(j) that “no part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform.” Both provisions are advisory guidelines that carry no civil or criminal penalties, and veteran organizations such as The American Legion explain that they refer to cutting or draping an actual physical flag into clothing. Wearing thoughtfully designed American flag shirts or embroidered American flag hats in classic red, white, and blue is a time-honored way to celebrate the principles Charles Thomson recorded in 1782.