# Fleur-de-lis on Danish immigrant to the USA, 1907

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fleur-de-lis-on-danish-immigrant-to-the-usa-1907/524079>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 7, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fleur-de-lis-on-danish-immigrant-to-the-usa-1907/524079 "2010-01-07T21:56:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fleur-de-lis-on-danish-immigrant-to-the-usa-1907/524079/1 "2010-01-07T21:56:03Z")

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Here is a picture of a Danish immigrant to the USA, taken on Ellis Island 1907.

> **[NYPL Digital Collections](https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/)**
>
> Explore hundreds of thousands of digital items from The New York Public Library.

- it appears he is wearing some kind of uniform or a regional jacket. But perhaps not. I’m wondering how the fleur-de-lis ended up there. Perhaps it was merely for decoration. Or perhaps not. Anyone to hazard a guess?

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**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fleur-de-lis-on-danish-immigrant-to-the-usa-1907/524079/2 "2010-01-07T22:04:25Z")

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> [@Rune](#):
>
> I’m wondering how the fleur-de-lis ended up there.

They’re utterly ubiquitous throughout Europe, not just in France. I don’t know the specific antecedents of this one, but it could be from just about anything. Here are two regional Dutch flags displaying them: [one](http://www.fanshop-online.de/fahnen-flaggen-infos/nl-fr0jl.html), [two](http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/nl-gr_ld.html).

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**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fleur-de-lis-on-danish-immigrant-to-the-usa-1907/524079/3 "2010-01-07T22:41:52Z")

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> [@Tamerlane](#):
>
> They’re utterly ubiquitous throughout Europe, not just in France. I don’t know the specific antecedents of this one, but it could be from just about anything. Here are two regional Dutch flags displaying them: [one](http://www.fanshop-online.de/fahnen-flaggen-infos/nl-fr0jl.html), [two](http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/nl-gr_ld.html).

The man is from Svendborg. A town close to the Danish city Odense. I just learned that Odense has had the fleur-de-lis as part of its emblem from at least 1460. I recon that is where it comes.  
e.g.  
[![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Odenses_v%C3%A5ben_1584.png) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Odenses_v%C3%A5ben_1584.png)