Antarctica

Throughout history, various flag designs have been proposed to represent the uninhabited territory of Antarctica in a manner similar to national flags representing countries. Because Antarctica is governed as a condominium, there is no institution that can adopt an official flag, so all flags are used unofficially.

Since the 1970s, there have been many designs proposed as a flag for Antarctica. In 1929, members of the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition on RRS Discovery used white cotton sheeting to improvise a courtesy ensign for Antarctica, which had (and currently has) no official flag. The banner is now in the National Maritime Museum in London. The white flag was used to represent Antarctica on at least two occasions on the voyage to Antarctica. On 1 August 1929, The Times noted that "the ship was flying the Union Jack at her forepeak, the white Antarctic flag at the foremast, and the Australian flag at the stern." Vexillologist Whitney Smith presented an orange flag with a white emblem in the hoist at the 1978 annual meeting of the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA). The letter A stands for Antarctica, the semi-sphere represents the area below the Antarctic Circle, and the hands represent human protection of the environment. For high visibility, he chose international orange, a color commonly used in the aerospace industry to set objects apart from their surroundings. The bright orange color was also chosen due to its rarity among national…