A peek at New Jersey’s historic flags
The state of New Jersey, the city of Trenton and Rutgers University boast flags of great appeal and historical interest.
RUTGERS
The design of Rutgers University’s flag, with its large “R” and date of 1766, was approved in 1965, just a year before the bicentennial of the institution’s founding. This year marks the school’s 250th anniversary. The crown on the banner recalls Queen’s College, from which the school evolved. In 1825, it was named for Col. Henry Rutgers, an early trustee and veteran of the American Revolution.
Under the college’s strict rules, the flag “is to be flown at the entranceways of university buildings or at special, officially sanctioned university events….[It] is not approved for use…under any other circumstances.” Rutgers is so firm about its policy that the public is not permitted to purchase the flag.
Fifty years ago, an alumnus, John Lenkey III decided to pay tribute to the Rutgers’ flag by planting it in mountains around the world. As a result, such locations as Australia’s highest peak and Mount Fuji in Japan have been adorned with his alma mater’s standard.
Lenkey also invited people to autograph another college flag he carried. It bears, among others, the signatures of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who climbed Mount Everest in 1953.
TRENTON
In 1985, George Dougherty, city attorney for New Jersey’s capital, realized something no one else had noticed: Even though Trenton had been the capital since the 1790s, it didn’t have an official municipal flag. His thought came at the right time because the North American Vexillological Society, which studies and rates flags, was planning to meet in Trenton in 1986.
Appointing himself “a one-man committee,” Dougherty decided on the look of the city’s banner. Split into gold and blue, the city flag displays the city seal, which includes a horse’s head and three sheaves of wheat, reflective of the Garden State’s agricultural history.
The official adoption of the municipal flag made only one significant change to the unofficial Trenton banner: The seal was moved from the left side of the flag to its middle, straddling the two colors.
NEW JERSEY
The state flag, designated 120 years ago in 1896, is blue and buff, echoing colors George Washington chose for uniforms during the Revolutionary War. His headquarters was located in New Jersey for a time.
As described by the state, the seal “contains a horse’s head” as well as “a helmet showing that New Jersey governs itself and three plows…referring to the State’s agriculture tradition.”
Two goddesses on the flag “represent the state motto, ‘Liberty and Prosperity.’” On the left side, Liberty holds “a staff with a liberty cap on it, and the word liberty underneath her.” On the right is Ceres, “goddess of agriculture,…holding a cornucopia with ‘Prosperity’ written below her.”
That’s a lot of old stuff for New Jersey.