On Saturday September 13th, the Historical Museum is holding a 200th birthday party as we participate in the nation-wide commemoration of “The Star Spangled Banner,” our National Anthem.
IN CELEBRATION
… Of our nation’s heritage and the National Anthem’s Bicentennial we are offering our members and the public a special opportunity to see displayed the oldest flag from our collection: the 38-star U.S. flag from 1877. This historic flag was a gift from Richard and Esther Davis in 1976, the year of the U.S. Bicentennial.
NOTE:The 1877 flag, featuring distinctive gold fringe, will ONLY be displayed completely unfurled for TWO DAYS: on Saturday, September 13 , between 1PM and 5PM, with special hours on Sunday, September 14, also 1PM to 5PM.
19th Century sheet music of our beloved National Anthem, 'The Star Spangled Banner.'
1814-2014 “The Star Spangled Banner”
Originating as ‘The Defence of Ft. McHenry’, Francis Scott Key’s 4-stanza poem was an ode to the fort’s enduring flag, which lasted through the night in the Battle of Baltimore on September 13th-14th, 1814 during the waning months of the War of 1812. (It appeared the British had the upper hand after the attack of Washington D.C. and the burning of the White House and Capitol building just weeks prior.)
Key’s stirring poem was soon set to the tune of a popular British pub song, ‘To Anacreon in Heaven’, and renamed “The Star Spangled Banner”. The song became the most well-loved and oft-performed patriotic song in the country and as we know was eventually named our National Anthem, in 1931.
For generation after generation, most every school student learned to sing the National Anthem from memory. The flag which inspired Key’s poetic tribute still exists. It was given to the Smithsonian Institute in 1908 and has been restored three times in its life time. We can see the flag on exhibit today at the Smithsonian, although it hasn’t flown free since that historic morning 200 years ago.
The amazing story of our country’s flag and the National Anthem inspired by it is a rich part of our national heritage.
The “Star Spangled Banner” on public display for its Centennial, in September, 1914 at Baltimore, Maryland
Download our event flyer HERE.
For further reading, check the following websites:
http://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/
Also, Smithsonian Magazine’s own story on the flag restoration:http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/star-spangled-banner-back-on-display-83229098/.
And, even Wikipedia has some very neat audio and video clips that are worth catching, to help get us in the spirit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner.