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Jefferson City, Missouri (U.S.)

Cole County

image located by Masao Okazaki, 24 June 2025

Description of the flag
Seal
Previous flag

See also:

Cole County
County and Municipal flags of Missouri
Missouri
United States of America

External sites:
City Website

Description of the flag

Jefferson City hosted a flag redesign contest in partnership with the Graphic Design Program of Nichols Career Center, a career and technical education school. The city aimed for a new flag that would replace a flag adopted via a contest in 1990 and would incorporate elements that better reflects the city’s history, landscape, culture, and future. The flags designed by students of the program were reviewed by a judging committee, stylized and digitized into six finalists and three color-schemes, and subjected to public voting from April 10 to 21, 2025. The winning flag was adopted by the city council on May 19, 2025, and is described as follows in the revised city code:

“The official flag of the City shall have a color scheme of red, white and blue inspired by the flags of both the State of Missouri and the United States. Featured at the left shall be a symbolic dome of the State Capitol. Featured on the right of the flag, a star symbolizes Jefferson City’s role as the Capital of Missouri. Passing horizontally across the lower center of the flag shall be two undulating white stripes, connected by vertical lines, representing the City’s railroad tracks and bridges, white separating an upper field of red from a lower field of blue, whose waves represent the Missouri River.”

Contest: https://www.jeffersoncitymo.gov/news_detail_T58_R320.php

Survey: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/4d4af8f843ab46e5a29132549a7bf7ed

Revised city code: https://share.google/oY718YCThUDdzCdQN
Masao Okazaki, 24 June 2025

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 30 September 2019

Image source: https://www.kbia.org/sites/kbia/files/sealcolr.jpg
Paul Bassinson, 30 September 2019

Previous Flag

3:4 image(s) by permission of David B. Martucci
image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright.

Text and image(s) from American City Flags, Raven 9-10 (2002-2003), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) from American City Flags by permission of David B. Martucci.

Design

The flag of Jefferson City is essentially a horizontal tribar: top, red; bottom, dark blue; and the center divided into five wavy stripes, three dark blue alternating with two white. Superimposed on these wavy stripes in the center of the flag is a circle, its top and bottom extending approximately one-eighth of its diameter above and below the top and bottom blue wavy stripes. The circle has a red field, on which the capitol dome is centered in white with dark blue shadings. Surrounding the red field is a blue ring with 24 white five-pointed stars, points outward. The entire center bar with stripes and circle overlays a large white silhouette map of the state of Missouri occupying, in the upper third of the field, about seven-fifteenths of the width, beginning about one-sixth of the distance from the hoist. In the lower third of the flag, the map occupies about three-fifths of the width, beginning about one-fifth of the distance from the hoist. Thus, only the northern and southern thirds of the state are visible, with the remainder covered by the central device. In a dark blue Calligraphy-421 BT-type font, Jefferson City is centered on the white portion of the map on the top bar, and Missouri is centered on the fly half of the white portion of the map in the bottom bar.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Symbolism

The dome of the state capitol identifies Jefferson City as the capital of Missouri. The 24 stars on the blue ring represent Missouri’s rank as the twenty-fourth state to join the Union. The wavy blue and white stripes symbolize the Missouri River. The colors are explained in the ordinance: The official flag of the City shall have a color scheme of red, white and blue inspired by the flags of both the State of Missouri and the United States.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Selection

A committee of three councilmen and three citizens selected the winning entry in a contest held in early 1990. Cash prizes were awarded for first, second, and third places.
Flag adopted: 5 March 1990 (official).
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003

Designer

David Woodside won the contest.
John M. Purcell, American City Flags, Raven 9-10, 2002-2003