Indiana is a constituent state of the United States of America known for car racing. The state location persists as its motto claims, at “the crossroads of America”. It extends its boundary to Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan to the north, Ohio to the east, Kentucky to the south, and Illinois to the west, making it an integral part of the American Middlewest with the rank 38 among the 50 US states.
The history of flags of Indiana states different timelines in American history since the early 1900s. The centennial of Indiana statehood, the Daughters of the American Revolution held a flag design competition In 1916 where Paul Hadley won the competition and on May 31, 1917, his design was approved as the ‘state banner’.
The flag is defined by law as having design elements in either gold or buff, although in practice gold or actually golden yellow is almost always used.The flag has a gold torch that showcases liberty and enlightenment. The rays surrounding the torch represent the far-reaching influence of the state. The nineteen stars allocate Indiana’s place as the nineteenth state to be a part of the United States. The thirteen stars in the outer loop represents the original Thirteen Colonies, the five inner stars constituent the next five states added to the Union and finally, the one large star above the torch represents Indiana. Exactly above the largest star, the state name is allocated..
An act of the state legislature in 1901 defined the flag as the state banner and also the state flag was technically the national flag of the United States. Later, in 1955, the General Assembly changed its classification from state banner to state flag ‘in addition to the American Flag’.
