The flag of Nashville, Tennessee consists of the city's seal on a white disc surrounded by a field of blue, with a strip of gold on the fly. According to the resolution adopting the flag, the blue stands for the courage and conviction of the city's leaders throughout history, while the gold denotes the richness of city's land and resources.[1] The flag was adopted in December of 1963 when the governments of Nashville and Davidson County merged to form the Metro government. In an official ceremony, it was reigned in as the new flag on August 4, 1964 at the Metropolitan Courthouse. The flag is modeled after the Tennessee state flag.
The seal displays a Native American holding a skull standing by a tobacco plant, an eagle, and a badge-shaped shield decorated in a style similar to the American flag. Though the de jure version of the flag included a monochromatic seal, today flags in Nashville are displayed with the seal in full color. Additionally, there is usually a thin white bar separating the outer strip of yellow from the blue field.
Prior to the consolidation, the flag consisted of a blue star on a red background overlapped by two crossing white bars. The blue star was enclosed in golden olive branches located under the letter N, standing for the city name. It had been designed by Harville H. Duncan and adopted by the City Council sometime after 1952.
In a review by the North American Vexillological Association of 150 American city flags, the Nashvillian flag came in 43rd with a rating of 4.85 out of 10. The group cited Nashville's use of its city seal, which they said makes flags difficult to discern from a distance. They also stated that the gold outer stripe would not have much functionality, because flags tend to fray, and the outer edge occasionally needs shaving. Mayor Bill Purcell commented, "Flags are a subjective thing. People in the rest of the country may not appreciate our unique flag. It's a flag that takes some time to get comfortable with. There are not many flags with a skull on it."
References
- Flags of the World's entry on the Nashville flag
- An article from The Tennessean mirrored by Flagwire
- NAVA's city flag survey.
- Mayor Bill Purcell hands the Metro flag to a school principal.
- A page by the Tennessee Daughters of the American Revolution on the Metro Nashville flag
- ^ Devereaux D. Cannon, Jr. (1990). Flags of Tennessee. Pelican. ISBN 0-88289-794-2 [Amazon-US | Amazon-UK]
Open source encyclopedia content modification information:
This page was last modified on 22 December 2009 at 14:58.
Authorship and Review
Open source encyclopedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Content is sourced directly from Wikipedia and is authored by an open community of volunteers. It is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Seal of Nashville, Tennessee", which is available in its original form here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seal_of_Nashville,_Tennessee
All material adapted used from Wikipedia is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Wikipedia® itself is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.