0.2 Identifying the flags of the souvenir of egypt  (Page 7/7)

Flag 6

Recall the mistake made a little earlier, when we read the color bars horizontally instead of vertically and came up with Germany insteadof Belgium. Let’s investigate the possibility that the artist who painted the design on the silk may have done the same thing.

After entering the new arrangement into the World Flag Database we quickly locate a match.

Smith offers this caption:

Flag 7

Dating our flags

Flag one : in use in Egypt from 1914-1923 as a mark of distinction from Turkey, both of which were under Ottoman rule during theperiod.

Flag two : In use in the United Kingdom from 1801 and remains the national flag today. Also appears in the canton of many regionalflags in areas previously colonized by the British.

Flag three : The national flag of Italy from 1848 until 1946, losing the crown above the shield at an undetermined point sometimeduring that period.

Flag four : The national flag of Belgium from 1913 until today.

Flag five : Our least fruitful investigation, this flag resembles flags used by the protectorates, dominions or colonies of theBritish Empire, but we have no exact match as of yet.

Flag six : Listed as the commercial, merchant and national flag of the Russian Federation, we know that it was in use from1799-1917 as a civil ensign, an alternate civil flag, the imperial standard of Russia and, for one year, that of the Russian Republic.

Flag seven : The national flag of France since 1848, in use as such today.

From these dates we can narrow down the date of the production of our silk, or at least the event or relationship that it represents. It seems like the earliest datefor the silk is 1914, when the Egyptian flag first came into use. The Russian flag appears to have gone out of use in 1917. The next cut off date would bethe falling out of use of the Egyptian flag in 1923. These are only speculations, of course, but we will certainly benefit from this information whenwe begin trying to identify the faces in the images in the next section.

We should also reflect on what we have learned about the process of identifying these flags. We have found that both print and online resources can be valuable for historical research. Onlineresources such as the map database can offer handy tools for quick identification, while print resources often provide historical perspective and offer more in-depth analysis.