John P. McDonough, Secretary of State    

The Maryland State Flag


Proper display of the Maryland State Flag

Maryland flag
The design of the flag comes from the shield in the coat of arms of the Calvert family,
the colonial proprietors of Maryland.
George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, adopted a coat of arms that included a shield with
alternating quadrants featuring the yellow-and-black colors of his paternal family and the
red-and-white colors of his maternal family, the Crosslands.
When the General Assembly in 1904 adopted a banner of this design as the state flag,
a link was forged between modern-day Maryland and the very earliest chapter of the
proprietorship of the Calvert family.
For printers: The red and yellow colors in the Maryland flag should conform to the
following Pantone Marking System colors:
  • red on coated stock-PMS 201
  • red on uncoated stock-PMS 193
  • yellow on coated stock-PMS 124
  • yellow on uncoated stock-PMS 124