The Bicentennial

As the United States prepared for and celebrated its Bicentennial in 1976, Americana themes found a particularly receptive audience. Frankie Welch created many designs to appeal to this interest. They sold well, and she replied to one inquiry about her Bicentennial items that she had been “so besieged with requests for the catalog sheet” that she was temporarily out. She also sold thousands of these Bicentennial scarves through exchanges on military bases around the world.

Welch’s first Bicentennial design was commissioned by the Bicentennial Council of the Thirteen Original States, a nonprofit group organized in 1970. It was based on a button created for George Washington’s inauguration in 1789 that she had seen at the Smithsonian Institution.

Welch’s Thirteen Original States design, and six others, became officially licensed products for the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (ARBA), a group created by Congress in 1973. One of the new designs featured the ARBA logo, in either blue or red on white, while the remaining five related to presidents.

Welch created several designs for the Bicentennial in addition to the ones officially associated with ARBA, including a red, blue, and white module version of a scarf she had designed for Betty Ford. She also designed a scarf for the American Freedom Train. This train traveled the country with a dozen display cars filled with American treasures.