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this is a hand made flag and hand signed he made these and passed them out after he won the design contest Benny Benson first learned of the flag design contest at the Jesse Lee Mission Home in Seward, Alaska. Founded in 1890 by the Woman's Home Missionary Society, the first Jesse Lee Home was located at Unalaska and provided schooling and shelter to children from the Aleutians and Bristol Bay area. In 1925, the Mission and its residents relocated to Seward. Benny Benson was born in Chignik, Alaska to an Aleut-Russian woman and a Swedish fisherman. Upon the death of his mother in 1916, the father placed Benny and his younger brother Carl at the Jesse Lee Home. As a seventh grader, Benny believed he had little chance of winning the design contest since he was competing with older children. However, the children were encouraged to submit entries with accompanying narratives that explained their design and what Alaska meant to them. Benny completed and submitted his design to the local panel of judges. Of the total entries submitted in Seward, the panel sent his and three others to Juneau for the final contest. Benny worried that his entry would be disqualified because he misspelled the word "strength." However, this was not the case, and his entry was submitted despite the fact that local judges placed it third in a field of seven semi-finalists. A total of 142 entries arrived in Juneau. The contestants used a variety of designs ranging from the territorial seal to a polar bear perched on an iceberg. However, Benny Benson's outstanding design was unanimously voted the winner. It showed the constellation Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper, set against a field of blue. Benny wrote: "The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-menot, an Alaskan flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear - symbolizing strenth (sic)." Word of Benny's winning design arrived in the form of a telegram to the Jesse Lee Mission Home. Benny recalls that his teacher, Mrs. Hatten, was overwhelmed and could not read the telegram aloud, thus her husband made the official announcement to the students. Flag design[edit] More than 30 years before Alaska was to become a state, the Alaska Department of the American Legion sponsored a territorial contest for Alaskan children in grades seven through twelve.[7] Benny's design was chosen to represent the future of the Alaska Territory. Up to that time, Alaskans had flown only the U.S. flag since the territory was purchased from Russia in 1867. His design was chosen over roughly 700 other submissions from schoolchildren territory-wide in grades 7 through 12. Most other entries featured variations on the territorial seal, the midnight sun, the northern lights, polar bears, and/or gold pans. For his achievement, Benny was awarded $1,000, an engraved watch and a trip to Washington, D.C.[8] Benny looked to the sky for the symbols he included in his design. Choosing the familiar constellation he looked for every night before going to sleep at the orphanage, he submitted this description with it: The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear symbolizing strength
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