When I saw that balloon corps flag it looked familiar. I looked through my database of eBay flags that were won by others and found two 48 star flags with lettering on the stripes. I posted the pics on my Flickr photostream. Please click the link below and look at the first two photos. The flag of the Sultana Survivors Association meeting of 1915 appears to have used the same method to add text to the stripes. Was that lettering added in 1915 or at some later date?

Nick