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| "The Flag Maker" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti relates the story of how, when, and where the Star Spangled Banner Flag came about. |
The Star-Spangled Banner Flag or the Great Garrison Flag was 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. Seeing
the flag during the battle inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem
"Defense of Fort McHenry", which, retitled with the flag's name of the
closing lines of the first stanza and set to the tune "To Anacreon in
Heaven", later became the national anthem of the United States.
In Baltimore's preparation for an expected attack on the city,
Fort McHenry was made ready to defend the city's harbor. When Major
George Armistead expressed desire for a very large flag to fly over the
fort, General John S. Stricker and Commodore Joshua Barney placed an
order with a prominent Baltimorean flagmaker for two oversized American
Flags. The larger of the two flags would be the Great Garrison Flag, the
largest battle flag ever flown at the time. The smaller of the two
flags would be the Storm Flag, to be more durable and less prone to
fouling in inclement weather.
Available documentation clearly shows that this flag was sewn by local
flagmaker Mary Young Pickersgill under a government commission in 1813
at a cost of $405.90. George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry,
specified "a flag so large that the British would have no difficulty
seeing it from a distance".
Mary Pickersgill stitched the flag (with her daughter, two nieces,
and two African American servants) from a combination of cotton and
dyed English wool bunting. The flag has fifteen horizontal red and white
stripes, as well as fifteen white stars in the blue field. The two
additional stars and stripes, approved by the United States Congress's
Flag Act of 1794, represent Vermont and Kentucky's entrance into the
Union. The stars are arranged in vertical rows, with five horizontal
rows of stars, offset, each containing three stars. At the time, the
practice of adding stripes (in addition to stars) with the induction of a
new state had not yet been discontinued.
The flag originally measured 30 by 42 feet (9.1 by 13 m). Each of the
fifteen stripes is 2 feet (0.61 m) wide, and each of the stars measures
about 2 feet (0.61 m) in diameter. After the battle, the Armistead
family occasionally gave away pieces of the flag as souvenirs and gifts;
this cutting, along with deterioration from continued use, removed
several feet of fabric from the flag's fly end, and it now measures 30
by 34 feet (9.1 by 10 m). The flag currently has only fourteen stars—the
fifteenth star was similarly given as a gift, but its recipient and
current whereabouts are unknown.
The Flag was flown over the fort when 5,000 British soldiers and a
fleet of 19 ships attacked Baltimore on September 12, 1814. The
bombardment turned to Fort McHenry on the evening of September 13, and
continuous shelling occurred for 25 hours under heavy rain. When the
British ships were unable to pass the fort and penetrate the harbor, the
attack was ended, and on the morning of September 14, when the battered
flag still flew above the ramparts, it was clear that Fort McHenry
remained in American hands. This revelation was famously captured in
poetry by Key, an American lawyer and amateur poet. Being held by the
British on a truce ship in the Patapsco River, Key observed the battle
from afar. When he saw the Garrison Flag still flying at dawn of the
morning of the 14th, he composed a poem he originally titled Defiance of
Ft. McHenry (though some accounts hold Defence of Fort McHenry). The
poem would be put to the music of a common tune, retitled The
Star-Spangled Banner, and a portion of it would later be adopted as the
United States National Anthem. Since its arrival at the Smithsonian, the
flag has undergone multiple restoration efforts.
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| Flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814, photographed in 1873 in the Boston Navy Yard by George Henry Preble |
The
flag that flew during that episode in history became a significant
artifact. It remained in the possession of Major Armistead, who was
promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel, for some time. Today it is
permanently housed in the National Museum of American History, one of
the Smithsonian Institution museums on the National Mall in Washington,
D.C. The flag was given to the museum in 1912, and has undergone
multiple restoration efforts after being originally restored by Amelia
Fowler in 1914.
Due to environmental and light damage a four phase restoration
project began in May 1999. In the first phase, the team removed the
linen support backing that was attached to the flag during the 1914
restoration. The second phase consisted of the most comprehensive,
detailed examination of the condition and construction of the
Star-Spangled Banner to date, which provided critical information for
later work. This included scientific studies with infrared spectrometry,
electron microscopy, mechanical testing, and determination of amino
acid content by a New Zealand scientist, and infrared imaging by a NASA
scientist. Planning and executing a cleaning treatment for the flag
following scientific analysis was the third phase. In the fourth and
final phase of the project, curators, scientists and conservators
developed a long-term preservation plan.
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| 15-star, 15-stripe "Star-Spangled Banner" flag |
More Links to The Star Spangled Banner Flag:
More Links to Activities and Lesson Plans: A film about "The Star Spangled Banner Flag and Francis Scott Key.
More Links to Activities and Lesson Plans: A film about "The Star Spangled Banner Flag and Francis Scott Key.
A pattern of the "Star Spangled Banner Flag." Students may cut their
own templates and duplicate the original flag design.
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