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Proving once again that one can learn more about American history by studying lighthouses than from any other subject, read on . . . .

You may have thought that an official government flag with a lighthouse disappeared when the U.S. Lighthouse Service went out of business. But, believe it or not, there is one branch of the United States government which today still has a lighthouse flag, and in fact they have a lighthouse on their official seal and on the police badges of its special agents. Who you ask? It’s the Department of Commerce.

The Department of Commerce’s lighthouse flag came into existence in 1910 after a nationwide contest was held to come up with a design. The flag has only slightly changed in appearance since that time, and that was when Labor split off from the Department to become its own cabinet post. The official motto of the Department of Commerce is, “To promote the nation’s economic growth,” and for a number of years the United States Lighthouse Service operated under the Department of Commerce.

Don’t even ask me to try to explain to you today what the Department of Commerce does. Why? Because it does everything. Since it came into being in 1903, today it is most likely the largest of all government agencies of the United States of America. The Department of Commerce is the clearinghouse of national statistics, it is the largest publisher inside the government, it is responsible for overseas trade, it prints more charts than any other cartographic firm on earth, it carries on the principle scientific functions of the government, it looks after roads, seaways, it predicts the weather, counts heads, protects inventions and even has an atomic ship. In fact, it has more ships that the U.S. Navy.

Today, the badge of special agents of the Inspector General’s office (which investigates fraud within the government) has a lighthouse on it. In fact, the badge is the same exact logo of the Department of Commerce, because it is a division of the Department of Commerce.

So yes, my friends, even in this modern age, the United States government still has an official lighthouse flag.

See page 44 for a replica flag now for sale!

This story appeared in the July 2002 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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