American flags are made from start to finish at Allied Materials, a factory in Missouri. The process includes cutting dyed ...

Granted, the easy answer for a replacement would be a standard 3-foot by 5-foot American flag, right? I guess. But easy answers aren’t often the best answers. That’s why I need your help.

Collector Jeff Bridgman — whose 13-star American flags are on exhibit through July 21 — on why pre-20th-century Stars and Stripes are the real pinnacle of U.S. vexillography.