BLAKEPONTCHARTRAIN HEY BLAKE,
If the Louisiana state bird is a brown pelican, why is there a white pelican on the state flag? Morris Gray DEAR MORRIS, Since the Middle Ages, pelicans — allwhite ones — have had religious symbolism. The image appears in stained glass windows and is carved on altars all over Europe. Some art historians say the image of the pelican tearing at her breast to feed her young is a reference to Jesus shedding his blood for his flock. Louisiana is officially known as “The Pelican State.” We have brown pelicans that live here and white ones you might call tourists. The American white pelican is not known to nest in Louisiana, but large flocks have been seen here in the summer and fall. On July 26, 1966, the Louisiana Legislature designated the brown pelican as the state bird of Louisiana. Long before lawmakers adopted it, however, the pelican was considered the state bird of Louisiana by consensus. Territorial and state Gov. William C.C. Claiborne greatly admired the bird, choosing it as the emblem for Louisiana.
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NEW ORLEANS know-it-all
As early as 1861, a white pelican and her chicks appeared on a Louisiana flag. They were placed in the center of a large red star on a pure white background. That banner was used unofficially throughout the Civil War, but the pelican flag was not made official until July 1, 1912. Since then, white pelicans have appeared on the flag in various forms: a pelican with a long neck looking at her nestlings; short, squatty pelicans with curved wings; pelicans with drops of blood and others without. Finally, in 2006, the flag design was made official. Until that time, the law only required that the flag have a blue background, the state coat-of-arms and the pelican feeding its young above a white ribbon with the state motto: “Union, justice and confidence.” Researching the state flag for a school project, Joseph Louviere, a student in Houma, La., noticed that
This latest — and official — version of the state flag was introduced in late 2010.
some older versions of the flag had three drops of blood on the pelican’s chest while the current one did not. Louviere contacted his state senator and before long House Bill 833/Act 92 was passed. Now Louisiana Revised Statute 49:153 states: “The official flag of Louisiana shall be that flag now in general use, consisting of a solid blue field with the coat-of-arms of the state, the pelican tearing its breast to
feed its young, in white in the center, with a ribbon beneath, also in white, containing in blue the motto of the state, ‘Union, Justice and Confidence.’ ... The design of the flag depicting the pelican tearing at its breast to feed its young shall include an appropriate display of three drops of blood.” An interim flag was designed with the drops of blood added, and on Nov. 22, 2010, a new state flag, featuring a more angular pelican, was unveiled. The flag’s design is similar to the existing banner but the pelican, still white, is more artfully represented and has the three red drops of blood on its breast.
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Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > july 17 > 2012
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