Ohio is a constituent of the United States of America whose name is derived from the famous river ‘Ohio’. The state lies on the northeastern edge of the Midwestern region of the nation. The boundary of Ohio extends Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Verginia and Kentucky to the southeast and south, Indiana to the west and Michigan to the northwest. In terms of the total area coverage, Ohio has 34th rank among the total 50 states. It is one of the smallest states west of the Appalachian Mountains. Ohio was declared as the 17th member of the union on March 1, 1803 and consecutively the first one from the Northwest Territory.
The flag of Ohio is the only one among all the 50 states to have a non rectangular shaped flag. John Eisenmann was the designer of the flag and the flag was claimed to be an inspiration from the shallow-tailed shape of guidon which was in hold by US cavalry. The influencing factor for its unusual shape can be the Pan-american Exposition of 1901 where the flag was flown from the Ohio building. The designer initiated copyrights to the design in 1901 and on May 9, 1902, the design was finally made official.
The state flag has swallow-tailed design with the pattern of red and white stripes and a blue hoist triangle at the left plane including a white-bordered red disk as well as 17 stars in white. The red disk placed at the hoist end explains the seed of the buckeye which is the official state tree. The white border is implicated as the initials of the state name ‘O’ and the use of Stars and Stripes as well as the color composition of red, white and blue is addressed as an honour to the US national flag. The triangles of the design were interpreted as the hills and valleys of the state and stripes as the waterways of the Ohio valleys. The 17 stars on the flag symbolized the 17th rank of the state to join the union.
