It consists of a simplified version of the coat of arms of the United States between the letters V and I (for 'Virgin Islands').

The yellow-colored eagle holds a sprig of laurel in one talon,[1] which symbolizes victory, and three blue arrows in the other (unlike the thirteen arrows in the US coat of arms), which represent the three major islands that make up the U.S. Virgin Islands: Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, and Saint John.

He approached Mr. White, captain of the Grebe, and Percival Wilson Sparks, a cartoonist, and asked them for suggestions for a flag design.

Afterwards, Sparks transferred it on heavy cotton material, then asked his wife Grace and her sister Blanche Joseph to embroider the design.

Transfer Day commemorates the transfer of sovereignty over the islands from Denmark to the United States, which was first marked at an official ceremony in 1917 by the lowering of the Danish flag and the raising of the American flag in Charlotte Amalie.