BENCHMARK - Current Flag (Wallace Rice)
"The three white background areas of the flag represent, from top to bottom, the North, West, and South sides of the city. The top blue bar represents Lake Michigan and the North Branch of the Chicago River. The bottom blue bar represents the South Branch of the river and the 'Great Canal', over the Chicago Portage. The light blue of the flag's two bars is variously called sky blue or pale blue; in a 1917 article of a speech by designer Wallace Rice, it was called 'the color of water'. There are four red six-pointed stars on the center white bar. Six-pointed stars are used because five-pointed stars supposedly represented sovereign states and because the star as designed was found on no other known flags as of 1917. From the hoist outwards, the stars represent: Original to the 1917 flag: This star stands for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Its six points symbolize transportation, labor, commerce, finance, populousness, and salubrity (health). Original to the 1917 flag: This star symbolizes the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Its six points represent the virtues of religion, education, aesthetics, justice, beneficence, and civic pride. Added in 1933: This star represents the Century of Progress Exposition (1933–34). Its points refer to: Chicago's status as the United States' second largest city at the time of the star's addition (Chicago became third largest in a 1990 census when passed by Los Angeles); Chicago's Latin motto, Urbs in horto ('City in a garden'); Chicago's 'I Will' motto; the Great Central Marketplace; Wonder City; and Convention City. Added in 1939: Commemorates Fort Dearborn, and its six points stand for political entities the Chicago region has belonged to and the flags that have flown over the area: France, 1693; Great Britain, 1763; Virginia, 1778; the Northwest Territory, 1789; Indiana Territory, 1802; and Illinois (territory, 1809, and state, since 1818). Additional stars have been proposed, with varying degrees of seriousness." -Wikip...
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