The flag of the state of Iowa is a vertical tricolor of blue, white, and red, similar to the flag of France and reflecting the U.S. state of Iowa's history as part of the French Louisiana Territory (because of the wider middle stripe and symmetric design, the design is sometimes classified[by whom? – Discuss] as a "Canadian pale"). The image of a bald eagle with a long ribbon reading "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain", derived from the Seal of Iowa, is centered in the middle white stripe. The word "Iowa" is placed directly below it in red, serifed majuscules. The flag was adopted in 1921; it was first approved in May 1917, by the Iowa State Council for Defense. It was designed in 1917, by Knoxville, Iowa, resident Mrs. Dixie Cornell Gebhardt, of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Iowa.