A 3-by-5-foot American flag made with help from 840 students and dozens of Forest Preserve District of DuPage County volunteers, visitors, and employees is the subject of the new eight-part The Work of Many Hands video series, which debuts June 26 on the District’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channels.

Led by Abigail Douglass, heritage interpreter at the Forest Preserve District’s Graue Mill and Museum in Oak Brook, the community project transformed raw sheep wool into the 3,000 yards of dyed and felted yarn used to create the flag. The wool originated from the flock of heritage Cotswold sheep at Kline Creek Farm, the Forest Preserve District’s 1890s living history farm in West Chicago.

“When people watch the videos and look at the flag, I want them to think about the people who had a hand in its creation, from schoolkids, carpenters, and lawyers to cooks, immigrants, and teachers,” Douglass said. “The flag symbolizes many things to many people, but it is also a tangible thing that we all have a part in making.”

In addition to following each step of the flag-making process, the series explores Revolutionary-era homespun textile crafts, natural dyes, and the evolution of American flag designs. It also highlights the homespun movement, when women resisted British taxes and tariffs by producing fabric and clothing at home. The series title is from historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s observation that “the flag, like the revolution it represents, was the work of many hands.”

“All of these processes remind us how much we take for granted when it comes to the origins of our clothes today,” said Jonathan Mullen, the Forest Preserve District’s multimedia content specialist and the series’ producer. “The project made me think about the complexities of modern supply chains and how our global economy has made products that once required an enormous amount of time and skill readily available and affordable.”

The flag will be on display starting July 1 in the visitor center at the Forest Preserve District’s St. James Farm in Warrenville as part of its Stars and Stripes: Our American Flag exhibit, which is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Oct. 31.