Paul Hadley

Paul Hadley was an American artist, mainly a watercolorist, who is known for his creation of the current flag of Indiana. He lived most of his life in Mooresville, Indiana. A middle school in Mooresville is named after him.

Early life Paul Hadley was born on August 5, 1880, When Paul was born, he and his family lived in 187 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis. Hadley was a student at Indianapolis High School. He dropped out after his freshman year to attend the Manual Training High School, in order to study art under Otto Stark.

Career Paul Hadley created stained glass pieces and did interior design for churches and wealthy homes. In 1922, Hadley became a facility member at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. For the first ten years of working at Herron School of Art, Hadley taught classes in watercolor and interior design. He later served as Assistant Curator at the school. In May 1933, Hadley was fired due to the school struggling during the Great Depression. Shortly after creating the state flag, he began a new career as a muralist. His watercolors were displayed and sold at the annual Hoosier Salon, the Indiana Artists Club, and the Indiana State Fair art exhibitions. Hadley typically won several awards for his watercolors from each event. By the end of the decade, Hadley had given up his art studio, but he continued to paint, mainly in his home in Mooresville.

Hadley made several copies of his original flag design. When he would create a flag, he would cut out the symbols and glue them onto the flag. The material he used for the symbols had a shiny gold appearance. Prior to Hadley's flag, Irwin B. Arnold and William C. Langdon had both created proposal flags that had very similar design elements. These flags were likely inspirations for Paul Hadley's flag design.

On May 31, 1917, Hadley's flag was chosen as the state's official banner. The General Assembly made only one change to Hadley's original design: they added the word Indiana, in a crescent shape, over the top of the large star. The state banner was later designated as the state flag in a statute passed in 1955 that also standardized the dimensions of the flag.

To honor Hadley for the creation of the state flag, the new junior high school in Mooresville was renamed to Paul Hadley Middle School in July 1965. Hadley's hometown of Mooresville adopted "Home of the State Flag" as its official motto in November 1965.