U.S. schoolchildren perform the “Bellamy salute” to the American flag in 1941. [Photo: Wiki Commons] Later examples include a 1921 sculpture by François-Léon Siccard in the Paris Panthéon.

A photo from the 1942 Lolomi, the yearbook of what is today A.C. Davis High School in Yakima, shows students in the auditorium saluting the American flag with what was known as the "Bellamy Salute." ...

A Concurrent Resolution adopting an official salute to the Oklahoma State Flag. WHEREAS, the Oklahoma Legislature adopted Senate Joint Resolution No. 24 on May 9, 1941, which officially approved ...

From the 1890s until the 1940s, American schoolchildren often accompanied recitation of the pledge with “the Bellamy salute,” a stiff-armed salute of the ancient Roman kind that was ...

In the 1900s, the “Roman salute” further crept into popular visual culture through early films focused on the passion of Christ or Christianity in a Roman context and through art.

Flag etiquette allows veterans and active duty personnel to salute it as we learned; non-veterans and other civilians are asked to remove their caps and place their hands over their hearts.

A salute to the American flag To modern eyes, it would be jarring to see a group of schoolchildren giving the stiff-armed salute to the American flag. But the gesture was commonplace for decades.

Children salute the American flag in 1915. Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons. While many American Olympians who win gold in Rio place their right hands over their hearts when listening to "The ...