Antarctica - Whitney Proposal

Several proposed flags exist, due to the unique situation of Antarctic territory. At the 1978 annual meeting of the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA), Whitney Smith gave a talk entitled “Flags of Antarctica”. In it he proposed his design for Antarctica: an orange flag with two hands under a sort of bowl.

The Whitney Smith design uses the high-visibility colour orange as its background (it is the international rescue colour, it contrasts the best against snow, and to avoid any confusion, is unlike almost any other national flag on Earth). The emblem consists of several components. 'A' stands for Antarctica. The bottom segment of the globe represents Antarctica's "position" on Earth (according to the modern convention of drawing maps with north on top), while the two hands holding up the globe segment represent peaceful human use. The emblem is coloured white to represent the snow and ice of Antarctica and is offset toward the hoist of the flag so as to maintain its integrity should the flag fray badly in the high winds prevalent upon the continent. However, there is no record of it ever being fabricated or used, despite being displayed in some atlases.