In 1910, the U.S. Navy began construction of a battleship named the USS Arkansas. The Pine Bluff chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution wanted to present a flag to the new ship, but after contacting the secretary of state, Earle W. Hodges, they were told that no state flag existed. This led to a state-wide contest to design a state flag. Hodges chaired the committee, and around sixty-five designs were submitted.

The committee met in early 1913, and ultimately chose a red, white, and blue design by Willie Kavanaugh Hocker of Wabbaseka, Arkansas. Hocker's original design was changed slightly by adding the state's name and re-arranging the position of the stars. This revised design was adopted by the General Assembly as the official state flag of Arkansas on February 26, 1913.

This collection contains entries for the 1913 contest to design the Arkansas state flag. It contains photocopied letters sent with the entries, two original notes, one original letter, four negatives of flags, and forty-three flag design drawings. There were sixty-five total submissions to the contest. This collection contains forty-three of those entries.

The Arkansas state flag competition entries finding aid is available in the finding aids section of this site.