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John McConnell’s Earth flag

“The authentic Earth flag”, aka “Earth Day flag”

by Henry A. Waxman and António Martins, Jul 1999

History and description of the flag
First design
Variant with moon and stars

See also:

Earth flags

Other sites:

“The authentic Earth flag” web page
Earth Site Home Page, maintained by McConnell, still active at 82 or 83 years old

History and description of the flag

The first Earth Flag was created and copyrighted by John McConnell in preparation for the first Earth Day (also created by him) in San Francisco, in March 1970. The first Earth Day was primarily a Peace Day. Senator Gaylord Nelson was in San Francisco that same year planning the first major Environmental Summit for April 22. Nelson invited McConnell to join forces with him, but McConnell refused because he felt that March 20th, the Vernal Equinox that year, was the more appropriate Earth Day.

Later on, McConnell became active in the United Nations Earth Society Foundation where he met Margaret Mead who really made the Earth Flag the icon it has become. She literally carried it with her wherever she went.

After Ms. Mead’s death in 1978, Ed Brennan, who was the president of the Earth Society Foundation, obtained a new copyright to the Earth Flag we use today. In 1995, Brennan (now an independent businessman) sought financial backing to expand the market for the flag. He was not successful, and the company he created fell on hard times.

Later in 1995, Henry Waxman acquired Brennan’s copyright by a marketing agreement for flags made per McConnell’s design, maintaining its availability. The 2×3 ft flag has a 15 inch diameter Earth image. The 3×5 ft flag is proportionately larger. The smaller flags are sized approximately. The blue shade is a “process” dark blue. Since 1995 were sold about about 1000 to 1200 flags per year. Most of the flags are 3×5 ft, with about 40% in the 2×3 ft size.

This flag was trademarked as The Authentic Earth Flag, but it is usually called The Earth Day Flag. However the copyright holder of the Authentic Earth Flag is not in charge of Earth Day.

NASA was not involved in the copyright agreement because Apollo photos are in the public domain. Anyone can use the image itself. It is only a violation of the copyright if put on a flag. The copyright extends to any dark blue flag with a centered photo image of the earth, even in variations (of shades and sizes) that are not actually sold by the copyright holders.

Henry A. Waxman (Earth Flag Ltd.), Jun 1999

The picture on The Authentic Earth Flag (the very famous picture showing Africa with Arabia at the top and Antarctica at the bottom) is from the