June 14th is Flag Day. It also happens to be the 49th anniversary of Wells Fargo's stagecoach appearance program. Around here if somebody asks me what I do for a living, I will often reply "I guard a Stagecoach for a living." The stagecoach is Wells Fargo's brand and represents our history in a way not too far off from the way our flag represents our country. I wrote my Master's thesis on Betsy Ross—you'll excuse me if these connections jump immediately to my mind.

There are a lot of folks who don't know about Betsy Ross  and a lot of folks who think that she did or didn't make the first star-spangled banner. Without recapitulating my thesis, let me just say that whether or not she made the first flag isn't really that interesting to historians of the flag, like Cecilia O'Leary  or Scot M. Guenter.  They'd rather focus on why the flag is paradoxical or problematic symbolism. It's a Historian's job to complicate things.

Most folks think that the Ross story is just a pleasant American myth a la George Washington's "I cannot tell a lie." In 2005 a rather substantial historian, David Brion Davis  wrote a book about the evolution of American symbols of freedom. He took up the Ross story and, much to my pleasant surprise, cited most of the points I cited in my thesis about the possibility of the former Elizabeth Griscom   actually making a flag for our fledgling nation. Hooray, I guess.

As for our stagecoach program, the truth of its existence and providence is much clearer. The first stagecoach "event" occurred on June 14th, 1958 in Hayward, Cal. when "Sport" Fellingham was asked to drive a coach pulled by a team of horses to commemorate the opening of the branch. In 2007 we expect the stagecoach appearance program to encompass something like 900 events which will be seen by literally millions of people. 2007 also marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the transcontinental stagecoach express business. And 2008 will be the 150th anniversary of the famed Butterfield Overland Mail  which Wells Fargo eventually made nearly synonymous with our own Express business.

Now if somebody out there could just send me a picture of a Betsy Ross carrying a flag on a stagecoach...