author
John Henry Fow
1851–1915
A Philadelphia lawyer and state legislator, he is best remembered for challenging the famous Betsy Ross story in The True Story of the American Flag. His work gives listeners a brisk, skeptical look at how national legends get made.
1 Audiobook
The True Story of the American Flag
by John Henry Fow
About the author
Born in Philadelphia on June 23, 1851, John Henry Fow built his career as a lawyer and also served as a representative from Philadelphia County in the Pennsylvania House. He remained active in law for decades and died on August 31, 1915.
Fow is chiefly known today for The True Story of the American Flag (1908). In that short historical study, he examined the origins of the U.S. flag and pushed back against popular stories that he believed were unsupported by evidence, especially the well-known Betsy Ross tradition.
That makes him an appealing figure for modern readers and listeners: not just a writer of patriotic history, but a careful debunker of easy myths. Even when his name is little remembered, his book still stands out for its plainspoken effort to separate legend from documented fact.