On June 14th Flag Day, Veterans Plaza of Northern Colorado displayed 35 U.S. flags at the Plaza in Fort Collins. Flag owner Newlen Sutton loans his 35 flags to the Plaza each year to be displayed for the public in honor of this holiday. His flag collection includes the first official U.S. flag to our present 50-star flag. Each flag has a description that tells about the history and how each flag was created. This year, about 75 people came to the Plaza to view his flag collection.
Navy Veteran Newlen Sutton
Navy Veteran Newlen Sutton next to his Betsy Ross 1776 Flag
As a former Navy Seabee veteran of 24 years, Newlen started his flag collection while visiting Colonial Williamsburg with his family in 2009. He purchased his first historic American Flag reproduction, the Grand Union. With the help of his wife, his flag collection has since grown to 35 flags spanning 1765 through 1959.
Newlen gladly shares his flag collection with the community at the Veterans Plaza every Flag Day. The flags tell stories of Americans like Elizbeth (Betsy) Ross, a Philadelphia widow struggling to keep her business afloat before the flag request by President George Washington, Grace Wisher, a Baltimore seamstress’ apprentice who helped make the Star-Spangled Banner, William Carney, the first African American Medal of Honor recipient and so many others. Visitors to the Plaza learned about two centuries of changes to the flag and the stories of the diverse people who gave us these American flags.
Be sure to visit a href=”https://www.americanflagstories.net” target=”_new”>his website to learn about the history of each flag. Contact Newlen at flagstories1777@gmail.com to schedule a presentation of his collection.