Eisenhower Welcomes Alaska as the 49th State and Approves the New 49-Star American Flag (1959)

Date: January 3, 1959

Created By: James C. Hagerty

Original or Replica: Original

Era: Alaska & Hawaii Statehood, The Presidency

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: DDE’s Records as President, Official File, Box 630, OF-147-D Alaska (5); NAID #12012424

In these January 3, 1959 remarks, President Dwight D. Eisenhower commemorates Alaska’s formal admission as the 49th state. Eisenhower delivered the remarks while signing the presidential proclamation admitting Alaska into the Union and an executive order establishing the design of a new 49-star American flag. He describes the ceremony as a historic occasion, noting that nearly half a century had passed since a new state had entered the Union.

Eisenhower welcomes Alaska on behalf of the existing states and offers his best wishes for the new state’s prosperity and success. He also congratulates Alaska’s newly elected state and federal officials and expresses his hope that they would work cooperatively for the benefit of all forty-nine states. Eisenhower pledges his own cooperation in that effort and closes by recognizing those who had worked for years to achieve Alaska statehood, joking that he hoped there was a signing pen available for each of them. The document captures the ceremonial culmination of Alaska’s long campaign for statehood and demonstrates Eisenhower’s role in formally completing the constitutional process that transformed Alaska from a U.S. territory into a state.