The Bellamy Salute to the American Flag

From Wikipedia.

Yesterday I mentioned the American school children doing what really looks a lot like the Nazi salute to the American flag in a Shorpy picture.  I did some more research and there was good old Wiki.

Francis Bellamy was a minister and author of the American Pledge of Allegiance.  He developed this flag salute to go along with it which is sometimes referred to as "The Flag Salute."

However, in the 1920s and 1930s Italian fascists and the Nazis adopted a salute with a very similar form which was derived from the Roman Salute.

This caused problems with the Bellamy Salute.

The salute officially became hand-over-the-heart salute when Congress amended the Flag Code on December 22, 1942.

--GreGen