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Swain's Island, American Samoa

Last modified: 2011-02-26 by ian macdonald
Keywords: american samoa | swains island | dove | stars and stripes |
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Unofficial Reconstruction
[reported flag of Swain's Island] image by Ben Cahoon, contributed by Chrystian Kretowicz, 2 May 2007
accuracy: unknown

Unofficial Reconstruction
[reported flag of Swain's Island] image by Wikipedia, contributed by Chrystian Kretowicz, 2 May 2008
accuracy: unknown

See also:


Description of the flag

I just came across a mention of a flag for Swains Island at the Department of Interior website:

Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson also saw on Swains Island a remarkable variant of the United States flag (1891). Old Glory flew on the flag pole, but superimposed on the blue canton was a white dove. They learned that at one time a bird had come and cried over the community at night, foreboding pestilence, and the dove had been added to the flag to propitiate this omen of evil.

Mikael Parkvall, 8 April 2007


Swains Island (American Samoa)
area: 1.865 sq.km
population: 37 (U.S. Census 2005)
represented in the American Samoa's legislature by one non-voting representative

Worldstatesmen by Ben Cahoon: gives its history in the capsule. Wikipedia has a good article on it at: and the Department of Interior page (above).

Ben Cahoon's rendition of the flag, as described by Robert Louis Stevenson after his visit to the island in 1891 is a slightly different reconstruction of the same flag is done by Wikipedia's contributor "Orange Tuesday". This flag doesn't appear yet on Wikipedia's page of Swain Island. According to the author, his rendition of Swains Island flag is based on the U.S. flag and the flag of Fiji.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 2 May 2008


The description of "Old Glory flew on the flag pole, but superimposed on the blue canton was a white dove" does not provide lots of details about the shape of the dove, size, if it was in flight or sitting (mine is in flight) or which direction the dove faces.
Ben Cahoon, 2 May 2008