Richard R. Gideon is a flag maker and retailer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who since 2003 has been publishing American Vexillum™ Magazine (AVm). It started out as a monthly print publication, from 2003 to 2006, before moving online as a quarterly. Since 2012 it has been supplemented with daily updates of “topical news items of interest from across America, and international news items when they add value to the magazine’s topics”. Gideon batches up these daily updates and sends them out around twice a week to an email distribution list that is “exclusive, by request, and is not sold or distributed”.
While the magazine and distribution list certainly reflects its editor’s nationalist and libertarian point of view, much of the material that Gideon aggregates is of broad vexillological interest. Coverage of ongoing controversies in the US around flag display is particularly good. (And for full disclosure: Richard has been kind enough to feature the Portland Flag Association in his list of flag associations.)
To give a sense of the content, here are headlines from AVm’s “Flag News and Other Items of Interest from across America” update of 28 March 2015:
- Bill requires universities to fly US, Arkansas flags
- WWII souvenir returns home
- Maryland allows Confederate license plates, but blocks other messages
- Philly led the nation in adopting a city flag
- (IOWA) Flag Day Celebrations to Commence in Knoxville Saturday
- Confederate flag leads Windsor students and administrators to unexpected diversity week lesson
- New at the Museum: Vietnam exhibit, historic flags, “Life of the Lenape”
- Buy American: Florida bill requires US-made flags
- Report: Army uses ISIS flag in training, scares public
- Marine Reservist Spots Upside-Down American Flag, Has No Regrets for What He Did Next
- Westminster unanimously passes American flag protection resolution
- Japanese flags begin journey home [from The Daily Astorian here in Oregon]
- Auction planned to benefit flag restoration
- Liberals, Pro-Lifers Join Forces to Defend Confederate Tags Before Supreme Court
- House OKs Bill Providing Sales Tax Exemption for US Flag
- Students Ordered to Remove Flag Shirts Ask High Court to Hear Their Case
- OPINION: Don’t ban the flag of inclusiveness
- AMERICAN CULTURE: College Students: Stop Acting Like You’re Made of Sugar Candy [from Reason]
- Flag waiving [from The Economist]
- Let flag fly, Port Orchard tells museum operator
- Trevor Burrus discusses Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans on KTRH Morning News
- AMERICAN CULTURE: New Mexico’s Legislature Reforms Asset Forfeiture to Require Actual Guilt [from Reason]
- Supreme Court struggles with free speech dispute over Confederate flag license plate in Texas
- Celebrate 120th birthday of Philadelphia civic flag
- Confederate Flag License Plate Case Reaches Supreme Court
- Are Confederate flag license plates a First Amendment right?
- Ball State choice for award winner criticized for Confederate Flag remark
American Vexillum™ is online at gideonflags.com/AVM, and you can ask to be added to the mailing list by following the instructions posted there.
Portland Flag Association 