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Copyright 2001. The Lazy 'C' - All rights reserved.
history
The New Jersey state flag is defined and described in Joint Resolution No.2 of 1896, which reads as follows:
Joint Resolution to Define the State Flag:
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
The State flag shall be of buff colour, having in the centre thereof the arms of the State properly emblazoned thereon.
The State flag shall be the headquarters flag for the Governor as Commander-in-Chief, but shall not supersede distinctive flags which are or may hereafter be prescribed for different arms of military or naval service of this State.
This act shall take effect immediately.
Joint Resolution to Define the State Flag:
BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
The State flag shall be of buff colour, having in the centre thereof the arms of the State properly emblazoned thereon.
The State flag shall be the headquarters flag for the Governor as Commander-in-Chief, but shall not supersede distinctive flags which are or may hereafter be prescribed for different arms of military or naval service of this State.
This act shall take effect immediately.
Nickname: The Garden State.
Capital: Trenton.
Constitution: The 3rd State.
Statehood: December 18th 1787.
Motto: Liberty, and Prosperity
History:
Members of the Delaware tribe of Algonquian Indians lived in New Jersey before Europeans went to the area. Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian navigator sailing for the French, visited New Jersey's coast in 1524. Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch, explored Sandy Hook Bay and the Hudson River in 1609. The Dutch established the area's first permanent European settlement in 1660, at Bergen (now part of Jersey City). England won control of New Jersey in 1664. It was named after the island of Jersey in the English Channel.
New Jersey was the site of nearly a hundred battles during the American Revolution (1775-1783). It became known as the Cockpit of the Revolution. Princeton and Trenton each served briefly as the U.S. capital during the war. Many New Jerseyites fought in the Union army during the American Civil War (1861-1865), but there was much pro-Southern sympathy in the state.
In the 1800's, improvements in transportation helped make New Jersey a great industrial state. Early industries produced textiles, locomotives, silk, clay products, iron, and steel. Thomas Edison invented the electric incandescent lamp in Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1879. Electronics and chemical industries began large-scale operations in the state in the 1940's. In 1977, the New Jersey legislature voted to allow gambling casinos in Atlantic City.
Bird:
The Eastern Goldfinch is the New Jersey state bird, having been so declared by Senate, No. 241.
Economy:
Agriculture: Nursery stock, horses, vegetables, fruits and nuts, seafood, dairy products.
Industry: Chemical products, food processing, electric equipment, printing and publishing, tourism.
Flower:
Violet - The state flower of New Jersey was originally designated as such by a resolution of the Legislature in 1913. Unfortunately the force of resolution ended with the start of the 1914 legislative session, leaving the violet with uncertain status for the next fifty years. In 1963 an attempt was made to have the Legislature "officially" designate the violet as the state flower, but the legislation apparently failed. In 1971, at the urging of New Jersey's garden clubs, legislation more specifically designating the Common Meadow Violet (Viola sororia) as the state flower was enacted.
Seal:
New Jersey's state seal was designed by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere and presented in May 1777, to the Legislature, which was then meeting in the Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield.
The three plows in the shield honour the state's agricultural tradition. The helmet above the shield faces forward, an attitude denoting sovereignty and thus particularly fitting for one of the first governments created under the notion that the state itself is the sovereign. The crest above the helmet is a horse's head.
The supporting female figures are Liberty and Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain, symbolizing abundance. Liberty, on the viewer's left, carries the liberty cap on her staff. Ceres holds a cornucopia filled with harvested produce.
Although the Seal's major elements have kept their relative positions for more than 200 years, there have been a number of lesser changes. The staff that Liberty now holds with her right hand she once held in the crook of her left arm. While the female figures now face straight ahead they at one time looked away from the shield. The cornucopia that Ceres now holds upright was once inverted, its open end upon the ground. The Seal was redesigned in accordance with Joint Resolution 8 of the Laws of 1928. It was then that the year of statehood, 1776, first appeared in Arabic figures.
Tree:
The official state tree is the red oak, Quercus borealis maxima. The red oak was authorized by a joint resolution signed by Governor Alfred E. Driscoll June 13, 1950.
Members of the Delaware tribe of Algonquian Indians lived in New Jersey before Europeans went to the area. Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian navigator sailing for the French, visited New Jersey's coast in 1524. Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing for the Dutch, explored Sandy Hook Bay and the Hudson River in 1609. The Dutch established the area's first permanent European settlement in 1660, at Bergen (now part of Jersey City). England won control of New Jersey in 1664. It was named after the island of Jersey in the English Channel.
New Jersey was the site of nearly a hundred battles during the American Revolution (1775-1783). It became known as the Cockpit of the Revolution. Princeton and Trenton each served briefly as the U.S. capital during the war. Many New Jerseyites fought in the Union army during the American Civil War (1861-1865), but there was much pro-Southern sympathy in the state.
In the 1800's, improvements in transportation helped make New Jersey a great industrial state. Early industries produced textiles, locomotives, silk, clay products, iron, and steel. Thomas Edison invented the electric incandescent lamp in Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1879. Electronics and chemical industries began large-scale operations in the state in the 1940's. In 1977, the New Jersey legislature voted to allow gambling casinos in Atlantic City.
Bird:
The Eastern Goldfinch is the New Jersey state bird, having been so declared by Senate, No. 241.
Economy:
Agriculture: Nursery stock, horses, vegetables, fruits and nuts, seafood, dairy products.
Industry: Chemical products, food processing, electric equipment, printing and publishing, tourism.
Flower:
Violet - The state flower of New Jersey was originally designated as such by a resolution of the Legislature in 1913. Unfortunately the force of resolution ended with the start of the 1914 legislative session, leaving the violet with uncertain status for the next fifty years. In 1963 an attempt was made to have the Legislature "officially" designate the violet as the state flower, but the legislation apparently failed. In 1971, at the urging of New Jersey's garden clubs, legislation more specifically designating the Common Meadow Violet (Viola sororia) as the state flower was enacted.
Seal:
New Jersey's state seal was designed by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere and presented in May 1777, to the Legislature, which was then meeting in the Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield.
The three plows in the shield honour the state's agricultural tradition. The helmet above the shield faces forward, an attitude denoting sovereignty and thus particularly fitting for one of the first governments created under the notion that the state itself is the sovereign. The crest above the helmet is a horse's head.
The supporting female figures are Liberty and Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain, symbolizing abundance. Liberty, on the viewer's left, carries the liberty cap on her staff. Ceres holds a cornucopia filled with harvested produce.
Although the Seal's major elements have kept their relative positions for more than 200 years, there have been a number of lesser changes. The staff that Liberty now holds with her right hand she once held in the crook of her left arm. While the female figures now face straight ahead they at one time looked away from the shield. The cornucopia that Ceres now holds upright was once inverted, its open end upon the ground. The Seal was redesigned in accordance with Joint Resolution 8 of the Laws of 1928. It was then that the year of statehood, 1776, first appeared in Arabic figures.
Tree:
The official state tree is the red oak, Quercus borealis maxima. The red oak was authorized by a joint resolution signed by Governor Alfred E. Driscoll June 13, 1950.