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Hawaii: historical flags

History of the Hawaii flag

Summarizing the book "The History of the United States Flag", by Quaife, Weig, and Appleman (1961):

Only U.S. state flag to have flown over a kingdom, a territory, a republic, and a state.
Captain Vancouver established a UK-Hawaii friendship in 1793-4 and obtained a "cession" of the Islands to the UK, but the British government apparently never took notice of it. He gave a red ensign to the king then, which on later visits he found flying in places of honor.
During the War of 1812, an American asked why the King (this was Kamehameha) was flying the "enemy" flag. He lowered it and raised the U.S. Flag, only to have the same thing happen when a British ship put into port. To avoid trouble, they decided to combine the two flags into one.
A captain Adams (British) apparently helped design this flag for the king. Some scholars credit a Captain Beckley, however.
The number of stripes varied, but was standardized at eight after 1843, for the eight principal islands in the group. In 1843 the UK declared that Hawaii was definitely independent and the Hawaiian flag was raised in a ceremony. However, this flag had stripes in the order white-red-blue through some mistake, which is why it is that way today, not red-white-blue as was originally done.

Dipesh Navsaria, 21 November 1995

Chronology:

1794-1816 Hawaii flew Union Jack as its National Flag
1816-1843 Hawaii flew early version of present flag
25 Feb - 31 July 1843 British occupation; all Hawaiian Flags were destroyed
31 July 1843 King Kamehameha III spoke his famous prayer of thanksgiving, a part of which serves today as the State Motto while a Hawaiian Flag that included a dove and olive branch was hoisted.
20 May 1845 present Hawaiian Flag adopted
1 Feb - 1 April 1893 U.S. Flag flown in Hawaii
1894 Republic of Hawaii readopts Hawaiian Flag
1898-1959 Territory of Hawaii uses Hawaiian Flag (confirmed 1903)
1959-present Sta