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![[Flag of Brooklyn]](../images/u/us-ny-bk.gif)
by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 25 July 2000
See also:
The flag of the Borough of Brooklyn is based on the flag of the old City of
Brooklyn, which of course lasted until "The Great Mistake of (18) '98" of union
into Greater New York. You can find one of the old flags on a wall in Borough
Hall, right next to the new Brooklyn Tourist Office. The motto on both flags is,
"Een Draght Mackt Maght", meaning "In Unity there is Strength". This is
also the meaning of the fasces the woman is carrying, a traditional Roman and
Classical Republican symbol of Unity, expressed by the rods bundled together
around the axe. This was before this symbol was degraded by Mussolini. I have
seen old magazine illustrations from the controversial period before the 1898
creation of Greater New York, and the editorial cartoons always show Brooklyn as
a woman, as opposed to her male suitor of New York. So the woman may represent
Brooklyn herself, and the rods of the fasces the many towns from which the City
of Brooklyn was itself formed.
The current 'official colors' of Brooklyn are blue and gold, and these clearly
derive from the current Borough flag, and I don't think they have any other
special meaning. Note that these colors are not in the old Brooklyn City Flag.
The honor of the Brooklyn colors reached its highest ebb when Borough President
Marty Markowitz wore a pair of boxing shorts in blue and gold to publicize his
'Lighten Up, Brooklyn' weight-loss campaign. Otherwise I, at least, would never
have heard
of them.
Richard Knipel, 8 July 2004
From the on-line city administrative code City Flag:
Brooklyn Borough Flag
§ 2-105 Official flag; borough of Brooklyn.
a. The following description is hereby adopted as the description of the
official flag of the borough of Brooklyn.
A white background in the center of which is the design of the seal. Within the
seal appears a figure of the goddess of justice in gold holding Roman fasces in
her left hand set on a background of light blue. Encircling her figure on a
background of dark blue appear the words "Een Draght Mackt Maght" the old Dutch
motto for "In unity there is strength" and below the words "borough of
Brooklyn." The outside and inside trim of the seal is gold.
Joe McMillan, 15 August 2003
Brooklyn is today represented by one star in the inner circle
of the NYC Police Department flag, being one of the three cities (as
opposed to towns and villages) that formed the City of Great New York in 1898
(along with the existing City of New York and the Long Island City).
Richard Knipel, 31 July 2004
![[Former Flag of Brooklyn]](../images/u/us-nybko.gif)
by Richard Knipel
Brooklyn, my home and now one of five boroughs of New York City, was
once its own city. Indeed, for much of the 19th Century it was the
third largest city in the US (Today, it would be the fourth largest).
So I give you the flag of the old city of Brooklyn, which by its end
had about one million inhabitants, making this its flag rather an
important, if forgotten, piece of vexillological history.
The image above is a rather cleaned up and rejuvenated version of a
photo I took of an old hand-painted flag on display inside Brooklyn's
current Borough Hall and former City Hall. I have not thoroughly
researched this flag's history, but I can say that the municipal
entity of the City of Brooklyn existed from 1834-1898, gradually
growing from its origins out of the Village and then Town of Brooklyn
across the East River from Lower Manhattan to eventually absorb all of
Kings County, before itself being subsumed into New York City, in what
some here still call, largely tongue in cheek, "The Great Mistake of
'98."
Note of course that this City Flag with its fasces-bearing young woman
is the clear inspiration for the current Borough Flag, which has
inevitably fallen a bit into modern vexillological decadence. The
modern flag confines the woman's figure into a rather unnecessary
seal, while incidentally changing the color of her robes from
apparent light blue to gold, and of her hair also from red to a golden
blond. Also note of course that Mark Sensen, quite understandably,
has misspelled the motto of both flags on the FOTW site. It is of
course, as can be plainly seen, "Een Draght Mackt Maght". The
translation could perhaps also be more accurately rendered, "In Unity
there is Strength." This is how our Borough President has cited it,
and it seems to fit the form and apparent meaning of the Dutch words
better, at least to one as I who does not speak Dutch.
Richard Knipel, 20 June 2004
I think I should make clear concerning the seal on the flag, that it is NOT
the same as the seal of Brooklyn. The official seal of Brooklyn shows the woman
in a more frontal, rather than profile, view. Apparently the seal was altered
for the flag, with the woman in profile having a clearer silhouette and better
able to 'march' on parade, if that ever came up. You can find some images on the
Brooklyn Borough President's website:
http://www.brooklyn-usa.org.
Richard Knipel, 21 June 2004
I have heard that the fasces represents the union of the old towns. The
'official' colors of Brooklyn are blue and gold - I have seen them used as such
on an official document (ribbons on the seal).
Richard Knipel, 8 July 2004
The spelling of Dutch in the 17th century was still very haphazard and
various different spellings of the words 'eendracht', 'maakt' and 'macht' is
very likely. I have never come across the spelling 'mackt' on the flag for
'maakt' before and have a sneaking suspicion that it is at best a mistake or at
worst an English corruption that have crept in over the centuries. My Dutch is,
however, also suspect (I can read it but would never dare write it), and one of
our Dutch members could perhaps give a more authoritative answer.
Andre Burgers, 8 July 2004
The Roman Catholic Diocese of covers the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in
New York City. Information about the diocese may be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Brooklyn and its
official website is at
http://www.dioceseofbrooklyn.org/index2.html. The flag of the Diocese of
Brooklyn can be seen at
http://www.thetablet.org/pictures/rally6.jpg, with context at
http://www.thetablet.org/02182006/stories.html.
The flag consists of
the diocesan arms on a white field above the wording DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN in dark
blue lettering. Without doing a formal heraldric blazon, the arms can be
described as thin gold Latin cross, separating quarters of red (1st and 4th
quarters) and white (2nd & 3rd). At the center of the cross is a small white
inescutcheon with a red scallop shell. In the 1st quarter is a gold crown with
enclosing arches, in the 2nd quarter is an open gold crown. The 3rd and 4th
quarters each have a circle with 6 alternating wavy bands of white and blue. The
crest of the arms is a golden mitre. A small, but better, image of the arms is
available at
http://www.mhtbrooklyn.org/images/Bklyn%20Dio%20Shield.bmp.
The above
source for the photo of the flag is a page from the 18 Feb 2006 online edition
of the diocese's newspaper The Tablet, which covers a rally in Albany, the state
capital, by religious and independent schools, their students, and the parents,
seeking authorization for tax relief for payment of tuition to such schools. The
article also contains some photos of flags and banners for some of the
participating schools.
Ned Smith, 3 April 2008
