Flag of Hawaii

The flag of Hawaii, also known as the Hawaiian flag, is the official flag of the U.S. state of Hawaii. It consists of a field of eight horizontal stripes, in the sequence of white, red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red with a British Union Jack depicted as a canton (placed in the upper-left corner). First adopted in the mid 19th century by the Hawaiian Kingdom, it became the official state flag when Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state of the United States in 1959.
The use of the Union Jack is a legacy of the British Royal Navy's historical relations with the Hawaiian Kingdom and, in particular, the pro-British sentiment of its first ruler, King Kamehameha I. The current design has been in use since 1845. It was retained by the Republic of Hawaii after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. Likewise, after U.S. annexation in 1898, no change was made to the flag design used by the Territory of Hawaii before Hawaii was granted statehood.
The flag's eight stripes represent the main islands of the Hawaiian archipelago.
Captain George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy visited the Hawaiian Islands on three occasions during his 1791 to 1795 expedition. At this time, the Hawaiian Islands were divided among several warring chiefdoms. In February 1794, while at anchorage in Kealakekua Bay off the island of Hawaii, Vancouver reached a diplomatic agreement with the king (or aliʻi) of that island, Kamehameha, who would later unite all the Hawaiian islands and become the first ruler of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Vancouver believed that the agreement reached meant Hawaii Island was being ceded to Great Britain but historians have argued that the Hawaiians saw the agreement as establishing a protectorate. After the proceedings on Vancouver's vessel, a British flag was presented, taken ashore and raised. The flag was either a British Union Jack, or a Red Ensign as used by the Royal Navy, which features a Union Jack in the canton. In 1801, the British Union Jack added a Saint Patrick's Cross when Ireland joined with Great Britain in a political union. Both pre- and post-1801 versions of the Red Ensign served as the unofficial flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom until 1816.
There is an unverified anecdote that, during the War of 1812 (fought between United Kingdom and the United States from 1812 to 1815), Kamehameha became aware of the nationalist meaning of flags. To avoid offending either side, he designed a new flag for his kingdom which combined elements of both the British Union Jack and the flag of the United States at that time.
In April 1816, Kamehameha purchased a brig from Scottish Captain Alexander Adams, and arranged for Adams to take command of the ship, which was renamed Kaahumanu. As part of the transfer ceremony, Adams wrote that he was "honored to take command under the Flag of His Majesty" though he does not describe the flag. The next year, in March 1817, the Kaahumanu became the first Hawaiian vessel to sail to a foreign port (Canton, China) under a "distinct" Hawaiian flag. In one sources, this is described as: "A St. George and St. Andrews Cross in the corner filled in with blue, with field consisting of red and white stripes" which virtually matches the ensign of the East India Company though another source describes “red, white and blue stripes added to a Union Jack”.
The Russian navigator Vasily Golovnin, based on a visit to Oahu in 1818, describes seeing a "national flag" which "consists of seven stripes: red, white, blue, red, white, blue and red, with the English [sic] Union Jack in the corner”.
Until 1845, visitors to the Hawaiian Islands reported various versions of the flag with different numbers of stripes and colors.
In 1843, either as an inadvertent mistake, or as a symbolic “reversal” gesture in the wake of the Paulet affair - a five-month-long, unofficial occupation of Hawaii by a British naval officer - the flag design was specified to have eight stripes: a white stripe on top followed by the sequence red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red. This new flag was officially unfurled May 25, 1845 at the opening of the legislative council and remains the same design as used today.
The canton of the flag of Hawaii contains the Union Flag of the United Kingdom, prominent over the top quarter closest to the flag mast. The field of the flag is composed of eight horizontal stripes, symbolizing the eight major islands (Hawaiʻi, Maui, Kahoʻolawe, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, and Niʻihau). The color of the stripes, from the top down, follows the sequence: white, red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red. The colors "red", "blue" and "white" are not explicitly defined. Despite resembling the flags of British Overseas Territories, the Hawaiian flag is proportioned differently – the Union Jack in the canton is in a 7:16 ratio.
In 2001, a survey conducted by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) placed Hawaii's flag 11th in design quality, out of the 72 U.S. and Canadian provincial, state, and territorial flags ranked.
In 1990, Governor of Hawaii John Waihee proclaimed July 31 to be Lā Hae Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian Flag Day. It has been celebrated each year since then. It is the same date as Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea, Sovereignty Restoration Day, a holiday of the Hawaiian Kingdom that is celebrated by proponents of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.
The flag used by the governor of Hawaii is a red and blue bi-color. In the middle of the eight white stars appears the name of the state in all capital letters. During the time Hawaii was a United States territory, the letters in the middle of the flag were "TH", which stood for "Territory of Hawaii".
The Kānaka Maoli ('true people' in the Hawaiian language) design is purported by some to be the original flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom, though this claim is unverified and widely disputed. It was introduced to the public by Gene Simeona in 2001. It has nine alternating stripes of green, red, and yellow defaced with a green shield with a puela (strip of kapa bark cloth insignia flown atop the double hulled canoe of the chief) crossed by two paddles.
Gene Simeona claims to have unearthed the Kānaka Maoli flag in 1999. Simeona said he encountered a descendant of Lord George Paulet who told him about an earlier flag. Simeona claims to have found evidence of the Kanaka Maoli flag in the state archives, though any sources he may have used have not been identified. Subsequent efforts to verify Simeona's claim have been unsuccessful. Critics of the claim have pointed to evidence of the widely accepted Hawaiian flag being in existence before the Kanaka Maoli flag.
Louis "Buzzy" Agard had proposed a Hawaiian flag design in 1993 which featured nine alternating stripes and the same charge as on the Kanaka Maoli flag, leading many to believe it is where Simeona drew his inspiration.
Despite the lack of verification about its historic use, the design is popular among those who prefer its lack of apparent colonial imagery.