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Shreveport, Louisiana (U.S.)

image by C. Eugene Baldwin, 15 November 1998

Flag Description

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Louisiana

Flag Description

The City of Shreveport Louisiana was founded in 1836 based on a treaty with the Caddo Indians of 1835. As part of the centennial celebration a public contest was held to design an official flag for the city. In 1934, the only city in the State of Louisiana that had a flag, adopted in 1918, was New Orleans with its French style red-white-blue which had there upon emblazoned a golden fleur-de-lis.

The design prize of $50 was collected by a local artist, Stewart G. Davis, after having been selected by a civic committee. This design was a French style tricolor of deep French blue - white - gold and a coat-of-arms centered in the white panel.

The shield was divided into three diagonal sections from upper left to lower right. The upper right was French blue overlaid with 18 golden stars that represented the fact that Louisiana was the 18th state admitted to the Union of the United States. The mid section was a red diagonal stripe overlaid with three stylized magnolia blossoms, which is the state flower of Louisiana. The number three here was chosen to symbolize the tri-state region of the Ark-La-Tex [Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas] for which Shreveport is the economic center. The lower-left section of the shield is ermine with 14 blue tails which was taken from the Shreve family coat of arms, Captain Henry Miller Shreve being the founder of Shreveport.

Atop the shield is a pelican, the state bird of Louisiana, and below is a wreath of cotton leaves which symbolizes the chief agricultural crop of the Red River Valley where Shreveport is located. The banner below has written thereon "City of Shreveport 1835". ---Ratio is 3:5.

C. Eugene Baldwin, 15 November 1998