The flags of New York City include the flag of New York City, the respective flags of the boroughs of The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, and flags of certain city departments. The city flag is a vertical tricolor in blue, white, and orange and charged in the center bar with the seal of New York City in blue. The tricolor design is derived from the flag of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands—the Prince's Flag—as used in New Amsterdam in 1625, when that city became the capital of New Netherland.
History
For the first few hundred years of its existence, the City of New York lacked an official flag. First mention of a city flag was in 1824, it was described as bearing the city's coat of arms.Rhode Island American, August 20, 1824, p.2 Another early mention of one was by The New York Herald in 1856.The New York Herald, June 26, 1856 During the Civil War the 10th New York Infantry Regiment was given a blue regimental flag that bore the state seal in the front and the city's seal in the back.Sacramento Daily Union, 14 April 1865 By the end of the 19th century, the city was flying an unofficial flag featuring its seal in blue on a white field.National Republican, July 4, 1876, p.1The mirror, August 16, 1917, p.2
In 1914, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the installation of the first mayor under English rule, the City Art Commission appointed a blue-ribbon committee to create the city's first official seal and flag. The committee consulted with the New-York Historical Society to study historical seals used by city government under the Dutch and English, to incorporate their symbolism into the new city seal and flag.
The committee described their proposed flag this way:
The flag was approved on April 6, 1915, and first unveiled to the public on June 24.
The current design dates from December 30, 1977, when the seal was subtly modified. The date was changed from 1664 (when the Kingdom of England took possession) to 1625. The change was proposed by the Irish-born Paul O'Dwyer, president of the City Council, to emphasize the Dutch contributions to the city's history and downplay the British legacy. The choice of date was controversial at the time; an aide to First Deputy Mayor James A. Cavanagh concluded: "In researching the validity of this proposal, I find no basis for 1625 as the founding date." An aide to then-mayor Abe Beame suggested that 1624 would be a more accurate date, as that was when the city was actually chartered as a legal Dutch entity. Author Edwin G. Burrows had another perspective on the debate, saying "You have to wonder if they didn't pick either 1626 or 1625 just to beat Boston, settled in 1630." Nonetheless, the mayor signed O'Dwyer's legislation.
Design
Section 2-103 of the New York City Administrative Code ("Official city flag") establishes the design as follows:
Colors
The blue, white and orange refer to the colors of the historical flag of the Dutch monarchy. Though otherwise identical to the flag of the Dutch Republic (Statenvlag), the Prince's Flag features an orange band in place of red. While New Amsterdam was under de facto control of the Dutch state, it was founded and operated by the Dutch West Indies Company (WIC). As a privately owned, yet royally chartered company, the WIC inherited the heraldic colors of the Dutch monarchy, orange representing the ancestral constituency of its founder, William I, Prince of Orange. The committee's report stated that "the order of arrangement follows the practice found in the French, Belgian and other tri-colors, of placing the darkest bar next to the staff."
The New-York Historical Society originally proposed adopting a horizontal tricolor to be more reflective of the historical Dutch flags, but the committee kept the vertical orientation.
Symbolism
Bald eagle: The symbol of the United States of America; prior to independence this was an English crown Native American: The original Lenape inhabitants of the area Seaman: Symbolizes the European settlers of the area Windmill: Remembers the prosperous industry of milling flour. Beaver: Symbolizes the Dutch West India Company, which was the first company in New York, then known as New Amsterdam. Also the official animal of New York State. Flour barrels: In the 17th century, New York had been granted a short-lived monopoly on milling, which established the fledgling colony as a commercial powerhouse 1625: Originally depicted 1664, the year was later changed to honor the establishment of New Amsterdam as capital of New Netherland colony, which was actually settled in 1624. The 1625 date has been described as "arbitrary" by the public historian at the New-York Historical Society and "simply wrong" by Michael Miscione, the Manhattan borough historian.
Inconsistency Although the City Code states that the seal's Latin legend is to be omitted from the flag, the city's own webpage shows a flag with the motto intact.
Use The flag is flown at New York City Hall, the headquarters of the New York Police Department, and at some city properties, such as public parks.
Several New York City sports teams have adopted the colors of the flag as their official team colors, including the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association,New York Knicks official site the New York Mets of Major League Baseball,Official site of the New York Mets, and the New York City FC of Major League Soccer. In 2017, NYCFC added the tricolor city flag to its jersey, substituting its own "NYC" monogram in place of the seal. The New York Islanders of the National Hockey League also use the orange, blue, and white color scheme; however, although the team moved to the New York City borough of Brooklyn in 2015, the team colors were selected when the team played in Nassau County, Long Island, which also has blue and orange as official colors.The Islanders Logo – A Brief History Lesson Islesblogger.com, 2008-07-08. (They moved back to Long Island in 2020.) Additionally, the Syracuse Orange football jerseys follow an orange, blue and white color scheme; however, the Orange play one home game in the Bronx every few years, as the team usually plays at JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse.
Mayoral flag
The office of the mayor of New York City has its own official variant, to which is added an arc of five five-pointed stars (representing each of the five boroughs) in blue above the seal. The dimensions of the mayor's flag are set at 33 inches by 44 inches.
Council flag
The New York City Council uses a variant of the city flag, with the word "Council" in capitals underneath the seal.
Boroughs Currently, only Brooklyn and the Bronx have official borough flags. The other three boroughs have standard designs in current use, though they have never been officially adopted. Staten Island borough lawmakers pushed to have their flag officially recognized by the state in the 1990s and early 2000s but were unsuccessful.
The Bronx
The design of the flag of the Bronx consists of a horizontal tricolor. The top band is orange, the middle band is white, and the band at the bottom is blue, mimicking the historical Dutch tricolor. In the center of the flag is a laurel wreath denoting honor and fame. The wreath encircles the Bronck family arms. The shield of the family arms shows the face of the sun with rays displayed rising from the sea, signifying peace, liberty, and commerce. The crest of the arms is an eagle or an auk facing eastward and with its wings expanded, representing "the hope of the New World while not forgetting the Old." The text underneath the shield is also the motto of the borough, and reads "ne cede malis", which is a Latin phrase meaning "Yield not to evil".
The Bronx flag was first adopted in March 1912, by then-Borough President Cyrus C. Miller, and recognized by the city on June 29, 1915.
Brooklyn
The flag of Brooklyn has been in use since at least 1860 when Brooklyn was an independent city.
The flag of Brooklyn has a white background with a seal at the center. Within the seal is an image of the Goddess of Justice set on a background of light blue, and bearing fasces, a traditional emblem of unity. The fasces is composed of six rods, representing Brooklyn's original six towns (five Dutch, one English) under New Netherland. Encircling that image is a ring of dark blue and the Old Dutch phrase "Een Draght Macht Maght" (modern Dutch: "Eendracht maakt macht") which translates into English as "Unity makes strength". During the City of Greater New York consolidation process of the 1890s, "Miss Brooklyn" from the flag became a popular figure, allegorized as being courted by Father Knickerbocker. Also in the darker ring are the words "Borough of Brooklyn". The outside and inside rim of the seal are gold-colored. The primary colors of the seal, blue and gold, have been adopted by the Borough President's office as Brooklyn's own colors. During Grover Cleveland's inauguration in 1885, members of the "Kings County Democracy" of Brooklyn carried a banner that bore a blue field with the city's seal in the center. The flag was mentioned in the lyrics in a 1897 children's pledge, in which it was described as "...The city’s flag is white and blue"
Manhattan
The Borough of Manhattan's unofficial flag is very similar to the New York City flag. The only difference from the city flag is the use of the seal of the borough in place of the city seal. The seal is similar to the city's but circular in shape. It has two stars below and is encircled by the inscription "Borough of Manhattan November 1, 1683". The date at the bottom is the date on which the Province of New York was divided into twelve counties by New York Governor Thomas Dongan, and New York County (Manhattan) was created, with the same border in use today.
The borough has used variations on its official flag; featuring changes to the seal. One includes the encircling inscription "The President of the Borough of Manhattan NYC" to represent the institution in official occasions when the Borough President is present. Another flag has been used by the borough, it consists of the same layout, with a simplified seal without the two stars removed from the seal, and with the date removed from the inscription.
Queens
The flag of Queens contains three horizontal bands, with the top and bottom being sky blue, and the middle white. These colors represent the arms of the first Dutch Governor Willem Kieft. At its center is a design consisting of a ring of wampum, a tulip, and a rose. At the top-left of the flag is a crown, the words 'Queens Borough' stylized as 'Qveens Borovgh' emblazoned in gold, and 1898, the year the five boroughs were consolidated.
The symbols on the flag's design represent the borough's collective heritage with the wampum paying homage to the Lenape natives who formerly called the land 'Seawanhaka' (a word meaning "island of sea shells") in reference to it as a place where they would collect clams and whelks used to make these beads. The tulip shown on the flag represents the Dutch, who were early settlers of the area. The red and white rose is a Tudor rose, a traditional symbol of England and the English monarchy. The queen's crown signifies the namesake of the borough, which was named in honor of Catherine of Braganza, Queen Consort of England in 1683, when New York's original twelve counties (of which Queens was one) were established.
The Queens flag was adopted on June 3, 1913, and first displayed four days later at a celebration marking the beginning of construction on the borough's dual rapid transit system.
Staten Island
The current flag of Staten Island was adopted in 2016. The flag has flown over the Staten Island Advance and Chamber of Commerce buildings, and is on display in City Hall and Staten Island Borough Hall.