English: The Flag of
Queens, comprising three horizontal stripes, two azure at the top and bottom, and one argent between them. The colors were inspired by the coat of arms of the
Dutch director of the
New Netherlands,
Willem Kieft. The crown symbolizes that of
Catherine of Braganza for whom the borough's name derives, 1898 was the year in which it was incorporated as a borough during the City's consolidation. The
wampum ring represents the
Lenape people who used to collect the shells to make it on these shores, when the land was known as "Sewanacky", the "island of seashells". The
tulip represents the Dutch settlers while the
Tudor rose represents the
English; the latter often appears erroneously with 4 petals on Borough graphics.
From the
original text documenting the design-
In April, 1913, Mr. G. Howland Leavitt, Chairman of the Rapid Transit Celebration Committee of the Borough of Queens, and Messrs. Louis Windmuller and Charle G. Meye of that committee, in co-operation with the Hon. Maurice E. Connolly, Borough President, and the Queens Borough Chamber of Commerce, invited the co-operation of this Society in designing a flag for the Borough of Queens, to be unfurled during the celebration of the commencement of the work of constructing the dual rapid transit system in that Borough in the following June [1913].
The official description of the flag lacks a proportion however the original artwork (see source) works out to be 4:5, as opposed to later renditions that give the flag a 2:3 proportion; neither of which appears to be codifed.