in the 1890s, expatriate american cora slocomb di brazza savorgnan, the countess di brazza, invented a universal peace flag with three upright bands: yellow, purple, and white, which became the peace flag of the international peace bureau. originally, there was a complicated symbol on the middle band: "a shield ... surmounted by a man's and a woman's clasped hands, sustained by a pair of dove wings with a white star aloft; on the shield can appear any device chosen by the association adopting the flag, or simply the number of enrollment among the users of the flag, or the motto "pro concordia labor" (for peace i work), or this motto may be placed upon a ribbon on the flag beneath the shield, or on a streamer (white) from the flag staff (blue, the color of promise) surmounted by a star with the motto of the association or individual using the flag upon the other white streamer".