A Brief History on Pennants

By K.R. Biebesheimer

​Introduction

​If you collect baseball cards, you know there’s a bounty of books, websites, and other materials available documenting everything you ever wanted to know about the hobby.  Who made my card?  When was it made?  Where did they make it?  These are all easy questions a person could likely answer simply by examining the four corners of the cardboard itself.  With a little more effort, you could find out how many were made that year; and even a reasonably accurate estimation of its value today.
 
The same goes for stamp and coin collecting.
 
I wish I could say the same for felt novelty pennants and banners.  Unfortunately, the opposite seems true.  More often than not, collectors of vintage felt novelties can only make "assessments" (educated guesses) about the decade in which a piece was made.  And that’s usually where the information completely dries up.  Nobody seems to know about anything else beyond that.
 
After I became interested in pennants, I found myself asking these questions all too often.  So I turned to the internet for some answers.  To my astonishment, I found very little.  So, I looked for books on the subject, expecting to find several ... but I found only one: Mike Egner’s “Vintage Pennant Price Guide,” a survey of the best pennants available for most professional sports teams through 1970.
 
That was it.

Here’s the problem: unlike a baseball card or a coin, pennants generally bear very little  information on them identifying their date of production.  Whereas most baseball cards reference the year they were made, pennants typically won’t unless they commemorate a certain event, team, or championship.  Even still, many pennants celebrating a particular championship lack any reference to a year.  And if your team won a lot of titles that decade, it’s nearly impossible to pin down which championship year the pennant commemorated.  (You Yankee collectors know what I’m talking about!)

Above: This pair of Dodgers/Yankees pennants were likely made for and sold at a world series featuring the two teams; but which one?  By the 1940s, pennant makers deliberately omitted the year in question so vendors could re-sell any unsold stock in future years.

​Another problem is pennants typically retain very little information identifying their manufacturer on them.  Sure, especially in the early 20th century, some makers sewed labels on the reverse listing the company name and where it was located.  But by the 1940s, 50s and 60s, only a few manufacturers continued this practice.  Instead, some makers affixed a paper “card header” to the pennant containing some manufacturing information--which was super helpful.  At a minimum, this would identify the pennant's manufacturer; and often the retail store it was purchased at, along with the retail price.  The problem was, unlike the sewn label, the header was intended to be removed by the consumer, post-purchase.  Consequently, many vintage pieces from this era today lack any information about who made it, where, when, etc.

You see what I mean?  Once these card headers were removed, you lost all kinds of information that might be of interest a collector several decades later.

But don't worry.  All is not lost.  This site, Pennant Fever, was created to help you answer some of these nagging pennant questions keeping you up at night.  So, feel free to explore the site, which is generally divided by manufacturers.  But before taking any significant deep dives into any one maker, here is a brief history on the felt novelty pennant itself. 

Origins

Pennants have been around for centuries.  It seems likely that their first real usage came on the high seas as a means for communicating  with other ships.  These early pennants were entirely made for and used outside.  To deal with the elements, they were made from heavy canvas; and they were flown from a ship's mast with the aid of metal grommets or D-rings.  Each pattern exhibited on each flag, pennant, or burgee signified a different letter, number, or established message, e.g., "I'm returning to port." Triangular pennants were typically used to communicate numerical values between 0-9.  Rectangular flags were used to signify letters A-Z.  These variations in shape helped sailors better distinguish between the two.​

Above: This ship's signal flags spell out, "England expects that every man will do his duty," a nod to Admiral Horatio Nelson's famous message from his ship before the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

During the 19th century, yachts and yacht clubs added to this maritime tradition.  If you were wealthy enough to own a boat, you likely belonged to a yacht club.  Exactly which yacht club you belonged to was, for some owners, and in certain social circles, a matter of pride one might wish to communicate with others.  Yacht club pennants helped do this.  Indeed, by the turn of the century, there were hundreds of registered yacht club (or sailing club) pennants being flown from vessels across the country.

Above: These 1895-96 yacht club flags helped boat owners tell others what club they belonged to.  Note that most resembled triangular pennants, whereas a few went with a burgee or "swallow-tail" flag.  As with other nautical pennants then in use, these were made of heavy canvass and intended for outdoor use.  The upper class used these to convey to others where they were from, what social circles they belonged to, and perhaps the source of their wealth.  Inasmuch as they communicated something about their owner's status, yacht club membership was a lot like membership in a collegiate fraternity or sorority. 

The felt novelty pennant

Felt pennants became popular novelty items thanks to two cultural changes: the proliferation of colleges and universities, and the popularity of a new sport called football.  By the end of the 19th century, these changes combined to create an environment where the felt novelty pennant was destined for success.
 
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the American collegiate landscape was really limited to the Ivy League schools.  Entry to one of these schools was restricted by numerous factors: gender, race, money, faith, family lineage, etc.  These barriers to higher education were steadily eroded by the proliferation of Catholic schools, women’s schools, Black schools, and most notably, public schools spreading across the nation in the latter half of the 19th century.
 
And while professional baseball would become the national pastime, by the turn of the century, football was the fastest growing sport across college campuses.  By 1900, the game of football began to supplant crew, lacrosse, and other traditional collegiate games that had dominated the Ivy League the previous century.  And it was football that made the nation, for the first time, pay attention to collegiate sports.
 
Now more than ever, people across the country took interest in the annual Harvard vs. Yale football game.  Not only that, national interest extended well beyond the Ivies.  By this time there were so many more colleges and universities nation-wide, newspapers and their readers could not help but follow the grid iron action taking place in their home state or region.
 
Against this new backdrop the felt pennant was born!  Remember, back in those days, students did not wear hats and t-shirts emblazoned with their school's name on them.  Today, that's exactly how we communicate what school or team we're rooting for; but, a century ago?  No way.  So, if you were heading to a track, fieldhouse, or stadium at the turn of the century to watch an athletic event, the dilemma became: how would you communicate to others what team you were there to support?

Above: F. Earl Christy illustrated a number of post cards issued by the Ullman Mfg. Co., ca. 1907.  This one featured a young lady heading to a sporting event with a felt pennant in hand.  Note the cane she's using to wave the pennant with; and appreciate the simplicity of the pennant itself, which was typical of those being offered prior to 1910.

​The answer, of course, was the felt pennant.  By about 1898, the first felt pennants hit the market and were sold mainly to college students.  It's unclear who came up with the idea, or what school was first to adopt them, but there's ample evidence that this trend emerged around the turn of the century and, most likely, within the Ivy League schools.  To this point, there seems little doubt that the felt pennant was inspired by the many yacht club flags and pennants that had grown in popularity during the previous century.

The first of these collegiate pennants were, shall we say, a bit crude by modern-day standards.  Typical designs from that era consisted of a triangular piece of felt with a single letter sewed on the head-end of the pennant in a contrasting color, e.g., "P" for Princeton University.  Vendors would often sell these items with a wooden dowel or cane to permit the student to wave it at the event.  Afterwards, the item could be taken home and tacked to the wall of one’s dormitory.

Above: This excerpt from flag maker J.A. Joel & Co.'s 1898 catalogue shows a limited offering of "ALL WOOL FELT PENNANTS AND FLAGS FOR COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS."  These were likely among some of the very first commercially manufactured felt pennants ever to hit the market!
​
Below: This pair of ca. 1900 Harvard and Yale pennants exemplify the style of pennants en vogue at the turn of the century.

If these first generation felt pennants look hand made, you're right.  Much of them was cut by hand with scissors, causing slight variations from one pennant to the next.  Within a few years, however, this would change.  By 1910, power sewing machines and dye cutters helped manufacturers produce increasingly more intricate designs, which only made the felt pennant's popularity increase.

​Examine one of these second generation beauties up close and you’ll soon notice: they were very well made.  Many were comprised of two or three-piece construction.  Some had borders.  Full school names replaced the single letter initial; and complex Old English letter fonts joined block letter fonts for the first time.

All of these felt pieces, of course, had to be sewn on.  Because of this, these early "sewed letter pennants," as they came to be known, were hard to produce in great quantities.  This meant they weren’t cheap either.  The students that bought these could expect to pay as much as $2 each (more than $60 when adjusted for inflation in 2024) for one of these flags.  For this reason, the felt novelty pennant was largely restricted to collegiate students in its first decade--that is, until further technological improvements helped drive production costs down.

Above: Contrast this pair of Harvard and Yale "monogram pennants" from ca. 1910 with the pairing made a decade earlier, shown previously.  As the pennant's popularity soared, manufacturers turned to technological improvements to aid them in making more intricate designs.  For instance, dye cutters allowed makers to stamp out detailed lettering en masse.  Nevertheless, the labor required to sew these pennants together ensured that only a select few could afford to purchase them.

​Early manufacturers

As felt pennants and other collegiate novelties grew in popularity, entrepreneurs across the country raced to produce them.  A common observation among these early makers was their location: many began their wholesale production in college towns, taking full advantage of their close proximity to obvious retail customers, e.g., the local campus bookstore.  It’s no accident that Chicago Pennant Co. started their business a stone’s throw from the University of Chicago.  Collegiate Mfg. Co.’s roots trace back to Ames, IA, home to Iowa State University.  And the Schloss Mfg. Co. spent nearly seven decades in Athens, OH--across the street from Ohio University.
 
In the days before the internet, fax machine, even the telephone, being located near your customers made sound business sense.
 
To be fair, not every felt novelty maker was located next to a college campus.  Chicago and New York City had their share of felt novelty makers.  Indeed, by 1921, close to a dozen different businesses were making pennants within Manhattan's bustling garment district.
 
Felt pennants became enormously popular by the 1920s.  But if you were a wholesale pennant maker, and you wanted to stay in business, you had to offer your retail customers more than just a triangular flag.  Most of these early pennant makers quickly expanded their product lines to other collegiate themed goods.  Felt banners and pillow cases came next.  Then came badges and pins.  Others delved into caps and gowns, while others offered laboratory aprons, even laundry cases.

Absence of intellectual property rights

​Try making--and more importantly--selling your own homemade Ohio State University pennant on Etsy today, and you’ll likely receive a Cease and Desist Letter from the school’s general counsel.  That’s because, today, every college, university, and professional sports team vigorously protects their name, slogans, insignia, seals and/or logos to the fullest extent under the law.  Copyrights and trademarks make this possible.

Above: The name "PRINCETON" in orange/black lettering + the seal of the university are protected by law, as indicated by these two “ ® ” marks beside them.  By the 1970s, pennant makers were required to obtain licenses to use protected trademarks like this.

​If you look at a contemporary pennant or banner today, you’ll note several instances of these legal protections.  That funky “ ® ” next to the team name?  It stands for “Registered Trademark” and signifies that the preceding word, phrase, or logo are registered trademarks with an office of record.  Put another way: use it without the owner’s permission, and you can anticipate some form of legal action.

This was simply not the case during the first half of the 20th century.  Back then, nothing was protected.  Good luck finding a pennant from the 1950s or earlier with any kind of trademark warning.  In those days manufacturers operated as they pleased.  Sometimes their designs merely referenced the school or team by name amidst original artwork.  But, by the 1950s, use of established seals or logos were more commonplace, with no apparent trademark info thereon, nor any indication that the maker had obtained a license to use these from the school or team that created (and owned) them.
 
By the 1960s schools and professional sports teams put an end to all this.  Finally recognizing the value of their brands, trademarks were filed with the proper authorities, and the “ ® ” spread like wild fire across contemporary pennant designs.  Today, these marks provide legal notice; but, more importantly, they also tell you: the item you’re handling is no antique.  

​Pennants and professional sports

​As noted earlier, the felt pennant really began as an expression of one’s collegiate pride.  This came at the turn of the century, and was limited to college campuses.  Eventually manufacturers would expand into professional sports.  But, not immediately.
 
To understand why you have to consider what professional sports looked like back then.  Until 1901, baseball was limited to one league of eight teams playing under the National League.  The NFL, NBA, and NHL had not yet been organized.  Compared to today, few people followed professional sports.
 
Professional baseball’s growing popularity would change this.  In 1901, the American League would usher in eight new teams; and, permit an annual contest between the two leagues then known as the “World’s Series” beginning in 1903.  By the 1910s, new ballparks were constructed to accommodate the growing numbers of fans wanting to watch live baseball games.  Over time, these ballparks became increasingly family friendly. 

Above: "A day at the Dodgers Game" by illustrator Earl Mayan, ca. 1955.  By the 1950s, kids were welcome in most major league ballparks.  Note the souvenir pennant this lucky boy took home!

By the 1920s and 1930s, professional baseball was becoming more popular with children especially.  Kids loved the game.  They played stick ball in the streets by day.  They caught part of the ballgame on the radio in the afternoon.  And then they read about how their team played in the evening newspaper.  By the 1940s, parents began bringing their children with them to the ballpark.  And when this happened, concessionaires saw an opportunity: they knew many of these kids would want to take home a souvenir.

​It’s not that professional baseball pennants from the 1910s, or earlier, didn’t exist.  They most certainly did.  And still do.  But, they just were not as commonplace as collegiate pennants in that era.  Consequently, there are much fewer surviving professional baseball pennants from that era than collegiate pennants today.

​And, as any collector knows, that means the price of one of these early pieces is today more than most of us can afford!

So, by the late 1940s, as ballparks became more family friendly, professional baseball pennant sales exploded, too.  Once the NHL, NFL, and NBA were formed, felt pennants honoring their teams would follow, too.

Production methods, styles, and composition

        a. Sewed letter pennants

​As noted earlier, the earliest pennants from the turn of the century were largely hand made.  The body, spine, and lettering were hand cut from felt.  Two or even three pairs of tassels were common.  Burnt leather appliques were sometimes used to recreate the fine details of a school seal or mascot.  Once cut-out, seamstresses then sewed everything together.  The result was a labor intensive, yet slightly imperfect triangular banner. Dimensions from this era varied wildly.  Many pennants were what we would today label “oversized,” e.g., 36” in length, oftentimes longer.  Finally, in these early days, the felt utilized was typically 100% wool.

​Some of the biggest manufacturers of these early sewed letter pennants were: Annin & Co. of New York, NY; Chicago Pennant Co. of Chicago, IL; and DeMar Mfg. Co. of Buffalo, NY, just to name a few.  Some of their most popular sellers were the "monogram pennant," the "date pennant," the "two-piece" and the "two-piece with border pennant," even the "building pennant."

Above: This ca. 1915 excerpt from Annin & Co.'s sales catalogue showcased a wide assortment of sewed letter pennants featuring different styles then available, in four sizes, including the popular 15" x 36" option.

Even with dye cutters and power sewing machines, every felt segment of these sewed letter pennants had to be stitched together by a skilled seamstress.  Notwithstanding their popularity with consumers, within a decade of their arrival, pennant makers began exploring new production methods aimed at reducing the amount of sewing required to make these items.

        b. Art process pennants

During the more than 100 year history of the felt novelty pennant, manufacturers were always looking for production innovations that reduced labor, increased output, and lowered costs.  Of these, there is no doubt that the advent of the screen printing method was the most significant.

In 1908, an upstart company named The Reproduction Co. of New York, NY forever changed the way pennants were made.  That's because this firm found a way to make screen printing commercially viable; and the felt novelty pennants generated by this novel printing technique were the fruits of their success.

By 1915, most major pennant makers had followed Reproduction Co.'s lead and were offering pennants made using the screen printed method, commonly referred to in those days as "art process pennants," or "stenciled letter pennants," and even "painted pennants."  Now, thanks to the rich detail this printing method offered, coupled with its low production costs, new pennant styles emerged, like: the "souvenir pennant," the "advertising pennant," the "promotional pennant," the "automobile pennant," the "fraternal order pennant," the "campaign pennant"; and in the decades ahead, the "grommet pennant," the "photo pennant," the "concert pennant," and the "caricature pennant."

Above: This excerpt from the same ca. 1915 sales catalogue by Annin & Co. shows some of their art process pennants then available thanks to the screen printing method.  By the 1910s and onward, sewed letter pennants gave way to art process pennants (screen printed pennants), whose graphics could be stenciled on much faster.  Two-piece pennants were phased out in favor of the more common one-piece, which involved less stitching.  Dimensions became smaller and more uniform, typically around 30” in length, much like they are today. 

​By the 1940s and 50s, manufacturers began introducing two, then three, sometimes four or more colors to their graphic designs.  This permitted crisp, rich artwork and designs that could never have been replicated using only felt.  Moreover, by this time, manufacturers had begun using felt blends that contained increasingly less wool, cut with other materials, like cotton; and even rayon, a synthetic fiber.

And to this point, in 1939, Congress passed the Wool Products Labeling Act, a law requiring all domestic manufacturers to fairly disclose the true composition of all wool in a given “wool product.”  If you find a pennant with a label that sources the pennant’s wool composition, then that generally means: it came from 1940, or thereafter.  To get around this, and to lower production costs, many pennant makers simply switched to non-wool felt substrates, e.g., cotton felt and even woven cloths resembling a flannel-like material.  ​

Above: Based upon this sewed letter pennant's construction, you might think it was manufactured at the turn of the century.  But not so!  Obviously, the "1947" embroidered thereon tells us something; but, less obvious is the "100% WOOL" composition specified on the pennant's label, which this maker was required to list to comply with changes in federal law earlier that decade.

End of an era

​By the 1960s, the four professional sports leagues, and many of the college conferences, saw their power and influence grow to new levels.  This had a profound effect on merchandising.  Now, teams concentrated their power behind the collective strength of their leagues/conferences, which used this greater influence to negotiate more favorable terms for their constituent members. 

They did this via the license.
 
This shift toward licensing would significantly impact felt novelty makers.  In the past, representatives from each team (or the team's concessionaire) and manufacturer would get together and negotiate a deal to buy a large volume of pennants each year at a nice wholesale price.  In practice, this meant each team/concessionaire was free to contract with local manufacturers for their pennant needs.  This business climate supported dozens of felt novelty makers doing business all over the country through the 1950s.  The result was more diversity in pennant design throughout each sport.

Above: By the end of the decade, all four pro sports leagues required licenses to make novelty items, including felt pennants.  As part of these licensing agreements, pennant makers were required to place the league's logo on each pennant, signifying that the item was officially licensed merchandise.

By the 1960s, that would all change.  Leagues--not individual teams--led these negotiations with felt novelty makers.  Now, if a maker wanted to produce a New York Yankee pennant, they had to agree to produce pennants for all the other teams, too.  Even the smaller market teams.  Of course, the cost of this license to make these items was exorbitantly high.  And only a handful of manufacturers had the capability of producing such a high volume of pennants every year.

​For this reason, felt novelty makers throughout the nation either closed, or found a way to adapt to this new climate.  Of those that continued making pennants, many would focus their efforts on high school markets, still a big business to this day.  Others shifted to flag making, like Chicago's WGN Flag Co. did; and others pivoted to commercial banners, such as Advertising Flag Co. of Chicago, IL.  Thanks to these adaptations, both family-owned companies survive to this day.

Other pennant makers were not so fortunate.  Keezer Mfg. Co. of Plaistow, NH and Chicago Pennant Co. each closed their doors for good in the 1980s. 
 
But don't assume the few pennant makers that continued making professional or collegiate pennants under a licensing agreement had it easy.  Far from it.  Now, to make a profit selling sports pennants, companies like Trench Mfg. Co. of Buffalo, NY and ASCO, Inc. of Winona, MN, had to find ways to lower their production costs.  This was crucial given the reduced profit margins they were left with after negotiating their license to use each league’s trademarks.  By 1970, these makers began using felt composed of 100% synthetic materials.  Graphics were printed directly into the felt via a printer, not painted with the aid of a stencil.  Tassels all but disappeared.  Most notably: clever artwork uniquely created for each team gave way to standardized design layouts that were recycled from team to team.
 
These changes signaled one thing: it was sadly, the end of an era; a period I refer to as the "golden age of pennant making," roughly 1945-1969.  

Conclusion

​For the past 120 years, the felt pennant has been the most consistent expression of one’s loyalty to a certain school or team.  The best part is they are still being made and sold here in America.  Go to a ballpark today and you’ll still find them for sale in the team shop.  Visit a college campus and you’ll still find them for sale in the bookstore.  And if your children are anything like mine, you might even find them pinned to the wall of your son or daughter’s bedroom.

Above: Oil painting by artist William Bengough from 1908 depicting two ladies waving pennants (for different schools) from moving cars.

But, a lot has also changed since the first pennants came into vogue at the turn of the last century: production methods employed, styles created, materials used, just to name a few.  And that’s not a bad thing.  These natural evolutions probably helped ensure the long term survivability of the pennant over the past one hundred years.
 
Indeed, these changes also gave us a nice array of pennants worth buying, selling, and blogging about all these years later.  So whether you’re a fan of the ornate collegiate pennants from the turn of the century, the comedic mascot pennants of the 1950s, or maybe even the caricature pennants of the 1980s and 90s, there’s a pennant out there that captures every fan’s sentiments.

Further resources

For a much deeper dive into the most significant pennant makers of the past century, and the people behind these companies, check out the "Featured Content" portion of this site, Pennant Fever.

For a closer look at some of the most popular pennant styles of the 20th century, and my efforts to reproduce some of them, check out our sister site: Pennant Factory.

For a nice site dedicated exclusively to professional and collegiate football pennants, you may enjoy Felt Football.

Want to join in on the conversation about pennants with some of the biggest and brightest pennant collectors on the planet?  Come to Net 54's most active thread, "Hey, pennant guys," and you'll see what we've been talking about for the past ten years.

​Interested in learning more about felt banners (a.k.a., rectangular pennants)?  Try: Vintage College Banners.

Finally, if you want to learn more about the screen printing method, including its early application for manufacturing felt pennants, track down a copy of "A History of Screen Printing: How an Art Evolved into an Industry," (2013) by Guido Lengwiler.  You won't regret it!

​Note: All unquoted material on these pages is © 2019 K.R. Biebesheimer & Son.  All rights reserved.  Short excerpts may be used after written permission obtained and proper credit is given.

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