The Emergence of Betsy Ross, 1873–1891

Abstract

This chapter documents the slow emergence and national circulation of the Betsy Ross story between 1875 and William Canby’s death in 1890. The Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 and the celebration of the Philadelphia Bicentennial of 1882 generated interest in the Betsy Ross story, which spread through souvenir photographs, illustrated magazines, and newspaper wire services that carried it across the United States and abroad. Notable, too, was the publication in 1878 of J. Franklin Reigart’s wildly embellished The History of the First United States Flag and the Patriotism of Betsy Ross, which Canby called a “literary lunacy.” Although absent from the 1876 Centennial Exposition, the story drew customers and attention to the Mund family saloon at 239 Arch Street and appealed to suffragists who used Betsy Ross to call for women’s right to vote.