What begin in Alexander Annin’s sail-making shop in 1820s New York City is today known as America’s oldest and largest flag company. It’s still family-owned and fiercely committed to using only USA labor and materials. 

While Annin Flagmakers’ headquarters can be found about 20 miles west of New York, you might say its “heart” is in rural Coshocton, Ohio. In recent years, USDA Rural Development is gratified to have played a role in the continued growth of the company’s largest manufacturing facility through more than $3.3 million in Business & Industry loan guarantees. Annin used the funds to purchase, renovate and expand its 152,000 square foot Coshocton facility, which today employs about 225 proud Ohioans. Start to finish, Annin flag makers craft an average of 35,000 flags each week. That’s 15 million a year! 

Annin flags have been part of some of the most astounding historic events imaginable. Commencing with Zachary Taylor’s 1849 presidential inauguration, to the flag-draped coffin of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865; onward to the iconic image of U.S. Marines hoisting the flag on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi in 1945, to NASA’s Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969: all were Annin flags. 

More recently, Annin Flagmakers donated labor and materials to help restore the National 9/11 Flag, destroyed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. This flag, which has traveled the breadth of the United States and has been stitched upon by hundreds of American hands, also integrates thread from the original Star Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.