Hard Telling Not Knowing each week tries to answer your burning questions about why things are the way they are in Maine — specifically about Maine culture and history, both long ago and recent, large and small, important and silly. Send your questions to eburnham@bangordailynews.com .
When people talk about the upcoming statewide vote about whether or not to adopt the 1901 “lone pine” design for Maine’s state flag, the major argument in favor of the change is that our current flag — the Maine state seal on a blue background — is boring. The design is nearly identical to the flags of 15 other states . It’s hard to tell Maine’s flag apart from the rest without squinting.
The “new” design — actually the first state flag, in use from 1901 to 1909 — is more distinctive and recognizable, proponents say, with its simple but evocative pine tree and star. It would distinguish us from the rest of the pack, including our neighbors New Hampshire and Vermont, which also have flags that are seals on a blue background. And we would not be the first state to change from that seal-on-blue design: Utah and Minnesota both changed their flags this year.
One thing that’s rarely mentioned in the flag change debate, however, is that the seal itself isn’t boring. It’s actually pretty cool. The Great Seal of the State of Maine was first drawn up just as we became a state in 1820, and is attributed to two people: Bertha Smouse, a teenage resident of the town of Waldoboro.