The production of flags has been, and continues to be, highly gendered. (Click on the photos below for original context as found on the web.)
Woman sewing a signal flag. Early 1940’s. From Bankcroft Library.“Tanya Mounts and Jackie Darr add the grommets to a large American flag.” Coshocton, Ohio. Photo from Annin Flagmakers website.Sewing the American Flag. Photograph by May Smith, National Geographic.“A mother sewing the flag in front of her daughter, Lebanon – 1950” From lebanonpostcard.com.Linda Le (right) and Kuo Nam Lo, above, embroider a presidential flag on Flag Day at the Defense Logistics Agency. Below right, a detail from the flag. LUIS FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ / Staff Photographer, Philadelphia Inquirer.Sewing stripes on an American flag at the Annin Flag Company, March 1943. Photographer: Marjory Collins (1912-1985). From US Library of Congress.A female inmate works on an American flag while working in the Prison Industries Authority Fabrics program at the Central California Women’s Facility on Thursday, April 5, 2012 in Chowchilla, Calif. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle / SFFrom the National Archives and Records Admin: “Patriotic old women make flags. Born in Hungary, Galicia, Russia, Germany, Rumania. Their flag-making instructor, Rose Radin, is standing. Underwood and Underwood., ca. 1918”Photography from Fred’s Flag Shop (http://pubpages.unh.edu/~njf49)“Women Sewing Flags” Photographer: Margaret Bourke White
Portland Flag Association 