File:Flag of Birmingham.png

This is an original drawing by User:Dystopos of the Flag of Birmingham based on the description in Birmingham's First Magic Century, Were You There? by Bertha Bendall Norton. (Birmingham: Lakeshore Press, 1970), and on an image found in the "American City Flags Survey" conducted by the North American Vexillological Association in 2004. link - accessed May 17, 2006.

Notes

• According to the North American Vexillological Society's American City Flags (NAVA), the proportions of Birmingham's flag are 10:19 (the same as those of the United States flag). NAVA further specifies the vertical bars in the proportion of 4:7:4. The photograph in Norton's book appears to show a more typical 3:4 ratio of hoist to fly, with much narrower red bars.
• An example of an embroidered flag owned by Emily Jones Rushing follows the 10:19 overall shape with the bars in a rough proportion of 1:5:1. Its central hub has eight teeth rather than seven.
• NAVA indicates that the circle of stars should be 5.5 units in diameter (using the unit as 1/10th the height or 1/19th the width of the overall flag). This would be much smaller than what is shown in their diagram or the photograph in the Norton book, so I have scaled the circle to approximately 7.25 units in diameter.
• NAVA indicates that the long rays should be 1/8th of a unit long, and the short rays approximately 3/4th of the longer ones. These would be much smaller than is shown in either graphical source. I have used 3/4 unit and 1/2 unit, respectively.
• The design specifies that the official seal of Birmingham appears in the center of the hub (which is at the center of the star). The Seal of Birmingham at the time of the flag's design showed a view of an iron foundry rather than the skyline with Vulcan. This version uses the current seal.
• The seal is modified in the flag design with the addition of the date "1871".
• NAVA specifies 85 rays, alternating long and short. The photograph in Norton's book shows one ray at each star.
• The colors are "white, red and gold", the specifics for which are open to interpretation depending on the pigments, dyes or pixels at hand.