The Maine State Militia featured potent symbols of Maine from the state seal—the white pine tree, a moose, and the North Star—on flags from 1822-1861.

After separating from Massachusetts in 1820, Maine Adjutant General Samuel Cony was tasked with supplying flags for Maine's approximately 100 militia companies, because the articles of separation required Maine to return all of Massachusetts’s militia flags. Needing a thrifty solution, Cony had this design engraved onto a copper plate and printed onto silk, the first known mass production of a militia flag.

Only about 12 of these flags are known to still exist as of 2020, including three in the Maine Historical Society collections.