When Gov. William L. Harding ordered a banner to be sent to Iowa regiments along the Mexican border in 1917, he learned that no state flag existed. Knoxville native Dixie Cornell Gebhardt had been working on such a project for her D.A.R. chapter. Her red, white and blue design, upon which an eagle carries a streamer bearing the state motto, “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain,” was adopted as the state flag in 1921. Learn More...