In 1899, the idea for a city flag for Raleigh was conceived. Now, a 100 years later, the Raleigh City Museum commemorates that decision with an exhbibit detailing the flag's history.

The City of Raleigh is one of approximately 450 U.S. cities to have an official flag. Raleigh’s flag was authorized in 1899 -- as the result of a wish by the City fathers to present a standard to the captain of the Cruiser USS Raleigh, in return for that ship's gift of a captured Spanish naval gun to the city. That was the Navy’s second "Raleigh," a protected cruiser built by the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, and launched on March 31, 1892.

Raleigh City Museum staff located the Spanish naval gun at the City of Raleigh's Fire Dept. Training facility, and have brought it to the Museum for display.

The flag was originally made by Miss Kate Denson. A bookkeeping entry of November 1899, revealed the cost of making the first ensign to be $52.

The official flag committee of 1899 recommended that Sir Walter Raleigh’s colors of red and white be used for perpendicular bars (red, white, red) on each side of the flag. Raleigh is known as "the City of the Oaks," and on one side of the flag, the committee recommended use of an oak tree surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves and acorns with the words, "City of Raleigh 1792." (A 1960 City Council resolution added the word "established" to the 1792 date.) This symbol is used as the official City Seal. It is embroidered in green and gold and centered on the white bar.

On the reverse side of the flag, also on the white bar, is centered a portion of Sir Walter Raleigh’s coat of arms; a red shield crossed by connecting silver "diamonds" extending from upper left to lower right. Atop the shield is a twisted strand of red and silver on which stands an antlered deer. Below the shield, a red ribbon carries, in silver, the words, Amore et Virtute, which translates to "By Love and Valor."

The deer on Sir Walter’s crest is significant in that the name Raleigh is derived from two Anglo-Saxon words meaning "meadow of the deer." Deer once thickly populated the forest that became Raleigh, as they did the Hayes Barton region in England, Sir Walter’s birthplace.