Star Spangled Banner Flag
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The Star Spangled Banner Flag is the garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor during the naval portion of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. It had been made by local flagmaker Mary Pickersgill.
Beginning at dawn on September 13, 1814, British warships began to continuously bombard the fort. The battle lasted for twenty-five hours under heavy rain. But when the British ships were unable to pass the fort and penetrate the harbor, the attack was ended. Seeing that the American flag was still flying over the fort the following morning, and seeing the British repulsed, Francis Scott Key was moved to write the Star Spangled Banner, a poem which, when later put to music, became the National Anthem of the United States of America.
The flag that flew during that episode in history, with its fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, became a significant artifact. It is permenently housed today in the National Museum of American History, one of the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall in Washington DC. The flag was given to the museum in 1912, restored in 1914 by Amelia Fowler, and restored again in 1998 as part of an ongoing conservation program. Considering the fragile state of its fabric, however, it is undergoing yet another restoration at the present time.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Learn about the flag's current restoration.
- Visit the Smithsonian's Star Spangled Banner Web site.
