A scarce illustrated pamphlet, History of the Stars and Bars, published in 1913 by the Edwards & Broughton Printing Company of Raleigh, North Carolina, issued under the auspices of the North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The wrappers bear a color-printed illustration of the seven-star First National Confederate flag ("The Stars and Bars") on its staff, with a red-and-white ribbon tied at the spine. The title page reads: "History of the Stars and Bars, Designed by Orren Randolph Smith, February 1861, at Louisburg, North Carolina, Adopted by Congress of Confederate States of America at Montgomery, Alabama, March 4, 1861." Facing the title page is an oval photographic portrait of an elderly Major Orren R. Smith, seated and wearing a broad-brimmed hat and veteran's medals, captioned "Veteran of three wars — in Mexico, in Utah, and the War Between the States. Designer of the first Confederate Flag."

Orren Randolph Smith of Louisburg, North Carolina, maintained that he designed the First National Confederate flag and forwarded a model to the Provisional Congress in Montgomery in February 1861, with a larger version sewn locally by Catherine Rebecca Murphy Winborne and first flown on the Louisburg courthouse square that March. His claim was later endorsed by the United Confederate Veterans in 1915 and the North Carolina General Assembly in 1917, and is memorialized on a monument still standing at the Franklin County Courthouse in Louisburg. This booklet, produced by the North Carolina UDC, was issued to document and promote that claim. The attribution has long been disputed, however; many historians instead credit Prussian-American artist Nicola Marschall of Marion, Alabama, who is believed to have submitted the design favored by the Confederate Committee on the Flag and Seal. No definitive documentary proof has settled the question either way, and the booklet offered here represents the North Carolina/Smith side of that historical debate.

CONDITION  Sewn pamphlet with age-toned illustrated wrappers and rough deckle-edged leaves; ribbon tie at spine present, ends frayed. Interior text and photographic plate clean and legible. 30 pages.   [cm][ph:L]

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