The Easton Flag
It is claimed that the Easton Flag is the "standard" first displayed on July 8, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was read on the steps of the Court House in Center Square by Robert Levers, the county clerk.

The flag appeared again on September 6, 1814, when it was presented by George Beidleman's 14 year old daughter, Rosanna, to Captain Abraham Horn's Company as they left for Camp DuPont, Marcus Hook, for service in the War of 1812.

At the conclusion of the war, the Company disbanded and returned home with the flag. Members of Captain Horn's Company, along with Captain Peter Nungesser's Company of Light Infantry, formed the Easton Union Guards in 1816. In 1821 they decided to deposit the flag with the Easton Library Company for safe keeping in Library Hall on North Second Street.

At the time of the Sesquicentennial held in Philadelphia in 1926, the flag was removed from its pole, placed between two pieces of plate glass and framed for exhibition. On its return, it was bolted to the east wall of the Easton Public Library's marble stairway in the front entrance to the Carnegie building.

In 1947, Katharine F. Richey stitched the flag to Irish linen using the best preservation techniques at the time. The flag, in its heavy oak case, was moved to its new location in 1968 when the addition to the Library was completed. The flag was removed from its case in 2000 for conservation and restoration by Fonda Ghirardi Thomsen, whose firm, Textile Preservation Associates, Inc., restored all the Civil War flags in Harrisburg.

Careful examination of the banner shows that each of the thirteen, eight pointed stars, which are seven inches across from point to point, is slightly different from all the others. The flag is made of two kinds of material, the stripes being grosgrain and the field India silk. The indigo blue field is in two pieces. The stripes were pieced together, the white stripes showing more patching than the red. The flag measures overall 55" by 97".

Precise dating of the flag has been a matter of controversy and historical research since the 1890s. Locally, it is felt that the women of Easton actually made the flag for the occasion of the reading of the Declaration, and it was forgotten for some years until the War of 1812.