Lucy Derwent submitted the winning design. The flag became the official state banner on July 6, 1915, following its passage in the Illinois State House and Senate.
In the 1960s, Chief Petty Officer Bruce McDaniel petitioned to have the name of the state added to the flag. He noted that many of the people he served with during the Vietnam War did not recognize the banner. Governor Richard B. Ogilvie signed the addition to the flag into law on September 17, 1969, and the new flag was designed by Mrs. Sanford Hutchinson and became the official flag on July 1, 1970.
State Nickname:
Illinois is nicknamed “The Prairie State”.
Illinois, especially in the areas to the south of Chicago, are mostly consist of the prairie ecosystem and this extensive area had led to the nickname of the state.
The North American prairie is one of the most endangered ecosystems on earth. The grasslands of North America began to form about 20 million years ago, but in some areas up to 99 percent of the prairie has been destroyed in just the last 125-150 years.