42-Star Printed American Flag, Celebrating Washington Statehood, 1890

Presented is a printed 42-star cotton American flag. The flag celebrates Washington statehood and dates to circa 1890.  The blue canton has 6 uniformly spaced rows of 7 white stars. The flag design is completed with 13 alternating red and white stripes, to represent the 13 original colonies. The 42-star flag is interesting from a historical perspective, because 42 was never an official star count. 42-star flags were only produced for 8 months, from November 1889 to July 4, 1890. The 42nd state was officially Washington, but four states gained their statehood only nine days apart. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington were all admitted to the union between November 2 and November 11, 1889. As such flag makers added four stars, accordingly, to the previously official 38-star flag. After 1818, star counts became official on the 4th of July each year. A new star was therefore officially added on Independence Day for every state that had been added over the preceding "flag year