First Minnesota state flag, 1893

The first Minnesota state flag, designed by Amelia Hyde Center of Minneapolis and embroidered by Norwegian immigrants Pauline and Thomane Fjelde. The flag was exhibited and won a gold medal at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893. The flag’s design incorporates symbolic elements around the state seal, including pink-and-white lady’s slippers (Cypripedium reginae); a red ribbon; the state motto, “L’Etoile du Nord” (the Star of the North); and three dates: 1819 (the year of the founding of Fort Snelling), 1893 (the year of the flag’s adoption), and 1858 (the year of Minnesota statehood). The nineteen yellow stars refer to Minnesota’s place as the nineteenth state admitted to the Union.