Square knot insignia

Square knot insignia
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Square knot insignia are embroidered cloth patches that represent awards of the Boy Scouts of America and Scout associations throughout the world. The insignia depicts a square knot made of colored ropes; the colors are generally dictated by the award the insignia is associated with.

History

See also: History of the Boy Scouts of America

In the earliest days of the Boy Scouts of America, military veterans were urged into service as scoutmasters. The first scout uniforms therefore resembled military uniforms. It was common for these veterans to wear their military decorations on their modified Boy Scout uniform — a national uniform was not to be developed until the early 1920s.

Military tradition dictated that the actual medal from a military award was only worn on ceremonial occasions — at other times, it was replaced with a thin ribbon bar with the same ribbon style as found attached to the medal. This carried over to scouting, whose awards were medals, similar to the military, but were most often worn as ribbons. These ribbons differed from the military style in that, instead of being the same as the ribbon for the medal, they were instead all the same - khaki coloured, with a woven square knot in the centre. The colour of this knot was dictated by the ribbon for the medal. The choice of the square knot as the common emblem was made by James E. West, who is said to have chosen it for its use as the knot associated with first aid, thereby reminding scouts to continue to be of service to others.

Initial introduction

Initially, eight new ribbons were introduced and later a ninth, which represented the various national awards available at that time:

• Silver Beaver Award
• Eagle Scout Award
• Scouter's Key Award
• Scouter's Training Award
• Quartermaster Award
• Silver Buffalo Award
• Honor Medal
• Merit Medal
• Silver Antelope Award

Further developments

Between the introduction of square knot insignia and today, over 40 new awards have been added. In addition, there are a number of unofficial awards using the insignia, and various other awards that use similar insignia but with different knots depicted.

Insignia of the Boy Scouts of America

Wearing insignia

Knots are worn in rows of three across the top of the wearer's left pocket. When less than 3 knots are worn in a particular row, knots are generally centered to the pocket, or the row below them.

Insignia available to youth

Insignia	Title	Started	Ended
File:WikiProject Scouting BSA Eagle knot yellow.png	Eagle Scout
File:KnotAOL.png	Arrow of Light
File:KnotOldSilver.png	Explorer Silver Award	1954	1958
File:KnotEAA.png	Explorer Silver Award	1954	1958
	Explorer Achievement Award	1977	1995
	Exploring G.O.L.D. Award	1995	1998
	Young American Award	1954
File:KnotACE.png	Air Scout Ace Award	1940	1950
File:KnotRanger.png	Explorer Ranger Award	1933	1951
File:KnotVentSilver.png	Venturing Silver Award	1998
File:KnotVentLeader.png	Venturing Leadership Award
File:KnotQM.png	Sea Scout or Sea Explorer Quartermaster Award
File:KnotYRelig.png	Youth Religious Emblem
File:KnotHero.png	Heroism Award
File:KnotHonor.png	Honor Medal
File:KnotMerit.png	Medal of Merit
File:KnotHorn.png	Wiliiam T. Hornaday Bronze or Silver Medal
File:KnotDSA.png	Order of the Arrow Distinguished Service Award

Insignia available to adults

Insignia	Title	Started	Ended
File:KnotSilBeaver.png	Silver Beaver Award
File:KnotSilverAntelope.png	Silver Antelope Award
File:KnotSilverBuffalo.png	Silver Buffalo Award
	District Award of Merit
File:KnotARelig.png	Adult Religious Emblem
File:KnotScoutKey.png	Scouter's Key Award
File:KnotTraining.png	Scouter's Training Award
File:KnotJW.png	James E. West Award
File:KnotGM.png	George Meany AFL-CIO Award
File:KnotHorn.png	Wiliiam T. Hornaday Gold Medal
File:KnotWhit.png	Whitney Young Service Award
File:KnotWDB.png	William D. Boyce Award
File:KnotVLP.png	Vale La Pena Award
File:KnotAsian.png	Asian American Award
File:KnotInt.png	International Scouter Award
File:KnotSW.png	Silver World Award
File:KnotDCSA.png	Distinguished Commissioner Service Award
File:KnotDCS.png	Doctorate of Commissioner's Science Award
File:KnotCSA.png	Community Service Award
File:KnotLAM.png	Scoutmaster Award of Merit
	Varsity Scout Coach Award of Merit
	Venturing Advisor Award of Merit
File:KnotScoutmaster.png	Scoutmaster Award of Merit		2001
File:KnotAlumni.png	BSA Alumni Award
File:KnotPhil.png	Philmont Training Center Master's Award
File:KnotCubmaster.png	Cubmaster Award		2012
File:KnotCubscouter.png	Den Leader Coach Award		2012
File:WebelosKnot.png	Webelos Den Leader Award		2012
File:KnotDenLeader.png	Cub Scout Den Leader Award
File:KnotPackTrainer.png	Pack Trainer Award		2012
File:KnotTigerCoach.png	Tiger Cub Den Leader Award		2012
File:KnotSpurg.png	William H. Spurgeon III Award
File:KnotSeaBadge.png	Sea Badge
File:KnotProTrain.png	Professional Training Award