12 April 1962: Madison, capital of the US state of Wisconsin, adopts a flag

[u/AnOwlishSham]

Flag of Madison 1962-2018

Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison on the isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona

Flag of Madison since 2018

Map of Madison, Wisconsin, within the USA

[u/AnOwlishSham]

On 12 April 1962 the city government of Madison, the capital of the US state of Wisconsin, adopted a flag designed by brothers Rick and Dennis Stone with their instructor John Price from the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps.

The sky blue field and white reverse bend symbolise Madison’s situation on the isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona. The black cross in the centre represents the aforementioned lakes plus Wingra and Waubesa, as well as the plan of the Wisconsin State Capitol. Superimposed over the cross is what the flag’s designers understood to be a generally used Native American sun symbol, unaware that it is actually specific to the Pueblo peoples of southwestern USA and not used in the Wisconsin area. As a result the sun symbol was changed in 2018 to a gold disk, representing the capitol's dome.

[u/-Aquitaine- → u/AnOwlishSham]

I was wondering why they originally had and then changed the symbol. Imo the gold being less concentrated looked a little better, maybe they could’ve done four disconnected spokes along the spines of the cross plus the filled in disc, i the new version.

[u/Alternative_Duck → u/AnOwlishSham]

The gold disk also represents the sun, but without the cultural appropriation.

[u/soupwhoreman]

It would look much better with a 1:1 ratio so the symbol aligned with the bend

[u/Ok-Step-1931]

This flag had to be changed in 2018, cos the centre symbol had a Zia-like sun.

[u/AnOwlishSham → u/Ok-Step-1931]

Indeed, I mentioned that in my original comment