The Meaning Of The New York State Flag Explained

Quick: If you had to design a flag for New York State, what would you put on it? Maybe you'd go with a couple slices of highly foldable cheese pizza criss-crossed in front of the Empire State Building. Maybe you'd choose the Charging Bull of Wall Street. Maybe you'd remember that New York isn't just a city and you'd choose the state capitol building in Albany or a mountainous scene from the Catskills. But let's be honest: You probably wouldn't go with the incarnations of Liberty and Justice standing on either side of the Hudson River.

That central image for the New York State flag is actually the coat of arms-like New York State seal, which is set against a dark blue background. There's a gold-rimmed shield in the center featuring a scene from the natural world: forests, mountains, the Hudson River in the middle, and the sun (hope) breaking the horizon. The old sailing ships on the river reference New York's commercial history as a major trading port (here's what living in the city 100 years ago was really like). 

The figures to either side of the shield, dressed in gold, red, and blue, represent Liberty on the left and Justice on the right. Liberty is stepping on the English crown to represent American freedom from Britain. On top of the shield there's a bald eagle sitting on a globe, which is focused on the Western Hemisphere. The eagle is also facing right, which indicates a good omen. Finally, both Liberty and Justice are standing on a banner that reads "Excelsior" (Latin for, "Ever upward"), and in 2020, "e pluribus unum" (Latin for, "Out of many, one") — a United States' motto — was added below it. 

Considering that New York joined the United States early on in 1788, it makes sense that its flag has undergone some revisions before the present iteration. New York's earliest, unofficial flag dates to 1775 during the American Revolution and features the same animal that is still its official state mammal: a beaver. But as soon as the region became a state, it set about designing its official flag. Interestingly enough, even though the flag's details have changed, not much else has. It's always had the two figures— Liberty and Justice — standing on a banner to either side of a shield depicting mountains and the Hudson, with a globe and eagle above it.

New York's initial 1778 flag depicted this exact seal, with some minor artistic changes to the design and figures. No one knows for sure where the seal came from, but the rising sun element could have come from the coat of arms of 17th-century Bronx settler Jonas Bronck. It also might have been a reference to the pre-Revolution duke of York. Either way, the design was originally set against a dark blue like it is today. 

In 1858, the dark blue background got changed to white, and in 1896, it got changed to buff, a light tannish color that was a part of the Revolutionary War uniforms. In 1901, the buff background got changed back to dark blue, which remains today. The images got tweaked along the way, and in 2020, the text on the banner got an upgrade.

The New York state motto, "Excelsior," has sat on the banner at the bottom of the New York State flag since the first, original design. Latin for "Ever Upward," it's basically a slogan meant to inspire people to aim for better lives. There are various ways to interpret this phrase, but all interpretations center on the same idea: The state is constantly trying to improve, move forward, reach for higher goals, etc. The phrase was such a favorite of former New York mayor Andrew Cuomo that in 2017, he founded the Excelsior Scholarship. The program provides free tuition to New York universities for students from families up to a certain income threshold.

In 2020, Mayor Coumo also pitched the first change to the New York State flag since 1901. "In this term of [presidential] turmoil, let New York State remind the nation of who we are," he said, as Gettysburg Flag Works quotes him. "And let's add 'e pluribus unum' to the seal of our state, and proclaim at this time, the simple truth that without unity, we are nothing." "E pluribus unum" — "out of many, one" — is also on the U.S.' official country seal, the Great Seal, which features a bald eagle (America's national bird) clutching 13 arrows (the original 13 colonies) in the right claw and an olive branch (peace) in the left claw. Now, the phrase sits under "Excelsior" on the banner at the bottom of the New York State flag.