New York State Consolidated Laws
Chapter 57, Article 6
Section 70. Description of the arms of the state and the state flag. The device of arms of this state, as adopted March sixteenth, seventeen hundred and seventy-eight, is hereby declared to be correctly described as follows:
Charge. Azure, in a landscape, the sun in fess, rising in splendor or, behind a range of three mountains, the middle one the highest; in base a ship and sloop under sail, passing and about to meet on a river, bordered below by a grassy shore fringed with shrubs, all proper.
Crest. On a wreath azure and or, an American eagle proper, rising to the dexter from a two-thirds of a globe terrestrial, showing the north Atlantic ocean with outlines of its shores.
Supporters. On a quasi compartment formed by the extension of the scroll. Dexter. The figure of Liberty proper, her hair disheveled and decorated with pearls, vested azure, sandaled gules, about the waist a cincture or, fringed gules, a mantle of the last depending from the shoulders behind to the feet, in the dexter hand a staff ensigned with a Phrygian cap or, the sinister arm embowed, the hand supporting the shield at the dexter chief point, a royal crown by her sinister foot dejected. Sinister. The figure of Justice proper, her hair disheveled and decorated with pearls, vested or, about the waist a cincture azure, fringed gules, sandaled and mantled as Liberty, bound about the eyes with a fillet proper, in the dexter hand a straight sword hilted or, erect, resting on the sinister chief point of the shield, the sinister arm embowed, holding before her her scales proper.
Motto. On a scroll below the shield argent, in sable, Excelsior.
State flag. The state flag is hereby declared to be blue, charged with the arms of the state in the colors as described in the blazon of this section.
Joe McMillan, 17 February 2000
In 1882, the legislature adopted the arms of the state that had first been designated in 1778. The flag was adopted in 1901 and modified in 1909.
Blas Delgado Ortiz, 23 April 2002
While every depiction of the New York State flag which I have seen omits the face on the sun, *every* actual modern flag I have seen does have the face (and I have seen quite a few- and I have made a point of checking to be sure the face was there). Usually the face is done in red thread, but occasionally it is a dark blue or black (not sure which, or if both). A few weeks ago I saw one which I at first thought was an exception to my previous experience about the face always being present. At first looking at one flying from a pole set several stories above the ground I did not see the face. However, after I had walked past and turned back to look at it one more time, with the real sun back-lighting the flag, and shining through the fabric, the face did appear as a shadow, since its threads were more tightly woven than the surrounding fabric. Upon closer examination I saw that, for whatever reason, the face had been embroidered in yellow thread stitched on the yellow sun.
Ned Smith, 14 March 2004 |
