Flag of Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Seal, Flag, and Motto Advisory Commission was spun up in 2024 to reconsider Massachusetts’ historic-yet-problematic state symbols.

Here are some thoughts on each symbol, mostly the flag.

The Seal

The current seal of Massachusetts, as well as its flag, are derived from the state’s coat of arms. I don’t have any particular design ideas here, but I do think it would be better to start by defining a new coat of arms that fits in with heraldic tradition, and then derive a new seal from that, rather than adopting a seal that breaks from heraldic tradition, like so many American seals do.

The Flag

Back in 2008 I proposed flags for each New England state derived from the historical New England Red Ensign. I still like the general thrust of that idea—the New England states’ shared history, distinct mode of government, etc. suggest embracing common symbolic elements, and defacing a shared ensign is a common provincial-level flag design approach in many other former British colonies. Given the (understandable and correct) desire to drop the current coat of arms, we could instead deface it with the mayflower-and-star motif from submission 349:

Some notes on the details:

• The aspect ratio of the flag is 19:10, the same as the American flag.
• The mayflower is the state flower, and is a nod to the Plymouth colonists.
• The star has six points, symbolizing Massachusetts being the sixth state to ratify the US Constitution.
• I tried to minimize the number of colors, so I made the star the same green as the pine tree. I took the shade of red from the American flag.
• The pine tree shape itself, as well as its color, come from Ensign_of_New_England_(pine_only).svg on Wikipedia.
• The mayflower and star shapes are from this SVG of submission 349, also from Wikipedia.
• This might be a bit too close to the current flag of Hong Kong.

Another option is to simply adopt the Naval Ensign of Massachusetts as its flag as well, which would be really appealing, except for the fact that the right wing has ruined it, as they do literally everything.

The Motto

The current motto, Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem, is part of the connective tissue that places the American colonists’ struggle to claim their rights within the broader Anglo-American historical context. Sidney’s Discourses are among the foundational texts of the new American nation’s political theory. I would leave it be.