Issued to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Betsy Ross' birth, U.S. #1004 features a reproduction of a C.H. Weisgerber painting. The stamp pictures Betsy Ross showing the flag to the Flag Committee – General George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross. Betsy Ross (1752-1836) Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Betsy Ross was a skilled seamstress and the official flag maker of the Pennsylvania Navy. According to tradition, she made the first American flag that had stars and stripes. As the story goes, General George Washington asked Ross to make a flag with six-sided stars, but Ross persuaded him to use five-pointed stars. As for the design, he asked that “We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it with white stripes, thus showing we have separated from her…” The Stars and Stripes design Ross may have designed was officially adopted by the congress on June 14, 1777.