To mark the 250th anniversary of the United States, we’re cataloging 25 objects that define the country’s history.
“The Star-Spangled Banner.” Many of us put our hands on our hearts and try to croak out the high notes when it plays at parades and sporting events. We think we know the stirring lyrics by heart, but how many of us know the true story of the battle that inspired the song, or that the titular Star-Spangled Banner was a real flag that still exists?
It’s a 213-year-old flag that was originally 30 feet long and 42 feet wide, large enough to be seen from a far distance. What remains of it is displayed in an environmentally controlled chamber at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
Jennifer Jones, a curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, said the size of the flag made it impossible for the British to miss it.
When was the flag made, and why was it so massive?
“In the summer of 1813, George Armistead, who was commander of Fort McHenry, wanted to have two flags made for the fortification. The government gave a contract to a woman by the name of Mary Pickersgill, who was able to make two flags: a storm flag, which is a smaller flag that would’ve flown during inclement weather, and this much larger, oversized garrison flag.
“She made it in about three and a half weeks with a team of her daughter and a number of nieces and an indentured Black woman by the name of Grace Wisher. And it was made so that the British could not fail to see this oversized flag, which would be flying from a 90-foot pole.”
In 1814, 35-year-old American lawyer Francis Scott Key witnessed the Battle of Baltimore from sea and eventually wrote the national anthem based on that experience. Did the story of the national anthem happen as he describes it in his poem, or did he take creative liberties with the story?
“He actually viewed the bombardment from the ship that he was on in the harbor three miles out from the battle as it went on. And after 25 hours of bombardment by the British at Fort McHenry, he was looking to see if the British succeeded in their efforts. And as this flag is being raised, he sees — by dawn’s early light — this oversized American flag, and he recognizes that America had been able to win this battle.
“So it’s not a myth. It’s true.”
What happened after the Battle of Baltimore to the flag itself?
“After the battle, Key went to Baltimore and finished his lyrics there, and the commander of Fort McHenry kept the flag and kept it as a family heirloom until it came to the Smithsonian on loan to us in 1907 and then was gifted to the nation in 1912.”
I understand that bits and pieces of this flag were actually cut off and given away to members of the commander’s family and to other people as keepsakes. How much of it did you lose before it was gifted to the Smithsonian?
“In the 19th century, there was no flag code, so small pieces of the flag were given away, the first being to the widow of one of the defenders of the fortification when he passed. And so there are a lot of fragments that were removed from the flag over time. We lost about eight feet off of the fly end, which was the tattered edge of the flag.
“We have about 13 or 14 fragments of the flag that were souvenirs and given to different individuals and or organizations. And we don’t sew them back on because we don’t know where they came from within the flag itself. We keep them so that if we want to lend a piece of the flag to another museum, we have something to lend.”
Why is this object, the flag itself, so critical to telling the story of America?
“One of the things I like to say is that the fragility of the flag and the care that we provide for this flag to preserve it for another 200 years is like the care that we as Americans need to give to our democracy. It’s fragile. Our flag is full of holes, and there are ways that we have to preserve it so that it lasts for another 200 years.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
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Will Walkey produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Walkey also adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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