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Mobile, Alabama (U.S.)

by Joe McMillan

City flag
Mobile Historical Development Commission
Mardi Gras flags

See also:

City Flag

The flag is white with red and blue stripes near the upper and lower edges and the city seal in the middle. The photo of the flag looks like the seal may be rendered all in gold, but it's not certain, so I've used the color copy of the seal from www.gcehjazzfest.com. A photo of the flag flying can be seen here.
Joe McMillan, 5 March 2004

Also visible, although barely, at the Mobile home page, www.cityofmobile.org, I can't make out the central device, but issuing from the top of it is an array of flags, obviously intended to represent those that have flown over the city. The red-yellow-red Spanish triband is visible; I assume the one to the viewer's left (which is white) is the French white flag seme-de-lis. A number of Google hits indicate recent controversy over a decision by the city government to remove the confederate battle flag from this seal, but I don't recall whether it was replaced by the Stars & Bars, something else, or nothing.
Joe McMillan, 1 March 2004

Mobile did not have an official city flag until a design was suggested by Commissioner Lambert C. Mims, and this was approved in a conference meeting on December 4, 1968, by the Board of City Commissioners. No Ordinance was adopted, but it is a part of the Minutes of the meeting of December 4, 1968, as recorded in the book. The official City Seal, which is used on this flag was adopted as the City Seal in 1961 with only slight changes from a design used in the 250th anniversary celebration. The sea gull and ship are significant because Mobile is among the nation's ten major seaports, and the cotton bale was responsible for much of Mobile's early growth and prosperity. The tall building and mill depict the many industries which have come to Mobile in recent years. A resolution in August of 2000 was made to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the official City Seal and replace it with the Third National Flag of the Confederate States of America.
Kathleen Moore, MHDC Secretary, 4 March 2004

Mobile Historical Development Commission

At http:///www.cityofmobile.org/html/departments/historic/Index.php is the coat of arms of the Historic Development Commission. The arms are mantled in gold with a golden cockle shell as a crest, attached to the mantling itself. The arms themselves appear to be a Spanish-style shield divided both horizontally and vertically into six small flaglets, if I may coin a phrase, three above the horizontal division and one inside each of the vertical ones. Each flaglet represents a country which ruled over Mobile from the time of its first European settlement to the present: these flags are, in the top row (a) the Bourbon lilies of France, gold on a w