Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On November 18, 1866, Dixie Cornell Gebhardt, “Mother of the Iowa Flag,” was born in Knoxville. The designer of Iowa’s state flag during World War I, Dixie Cornell Gebhardt’s design continues to fly over Iowa today.
Born to American Civil War infantryman and Knoxville physician Dr. Norman Riley Cornell, Dixie May Cornell grew up in the seat of Marion County. Although Dixie headed to Ottumwa for one year of education at the Visitation School for Girls, she attended Knoxville Public Schools for the majority of her youth and graduated in 1885.
After a brief stint teaching, Dixie Cornell got involved in the community before marrying George Tullis Gebhardt in June 1900. An important officer of the P.E.O. Sisterhood and Red Cross, Cornell Gebhardt helped establish the Mary Marion Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1917 while also serving at the state level in the DAR.
When Iowa Governor William Harding commissioned a contest for a state flag design in May 1917 to establish a regimental flag for Iowa Guardsmen serving in World War I, Gebhardt collected ideas from DAR chapters throughout Iowa. She spent eight years determining the final design, which features an eagle clutching a banner that reads “our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain” on a field of red, white, and blue. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
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