Page Title: The Star Spangled Banner

The Star Spangled Banner flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland while it was being bombed by a British Fleet during the War of 1812. It is the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words which would become our beloved national anthem. The flag, the anthem and the historical event they describe tell the story of Americans sticking together under siege. The original flag is clearly an American treasure and one the most important historic relics of the American people. It is housed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

In a sense, we Americans, The flag and The Anthem are all English. The original flag is made of English wool. The Anthem is set to an English tune. In declaring their independence from dear old Mother England, our founders were not inventing liberty. They were defending their centuries old English liberty and civil rights which were their birth rights as free Englishmen.


Cotton Star Spangled Banner Flag

Look at this utterly beautiful heavy cotton Star Spangled Banner flag with embroidered stars, heavy canvas heading and brass grommets

Cotton Star Spangled Banner Flag

3x5' $75.00 #H63CS

 

Star Spangled Banner Flag

Four rows of stitching in the fly end

Cotton flags are heavy. If you are putting them in a front porch type setting, you should probably have a 1" pole, not the common 3/4".

Star Spangled Banner Flag

Heavy embroidered stars

Traditional subdued warm cotton colors

 

Star Spangled Banner 4x6" Desk Flag on a 10" Staff

4x6" Pricing

Star Spangled Banner Flag

 

Nylon Star Spangled Banner Flags: Nylon flags will fly better than heavy cotton and are generally considered a longer lasting outdoor fabric. They have brighter more modern looking colors. Their lighter weight also puts less stress on your hardware.
2x3' Dyed stars and stripes, Nylon $39.00 #H622
3x5' Dyed stars and stripes, Nylon $52.00 #H63P
3x5' Embroidered stars and sewn stripes, Nylon $73.00 #H63S3

All with heading and grommets

 

"Hey Al, Why are the stars crooked?"

By the way, notice the peculiar star pattern. The stars are not arranged straight up and down. That is the famous "dancing star pattern" seen in the original Star Spangled Banner flown over Ft. McHenry. Back then the American flag's star pattern was not standardized and it appeared in many variations based on the whim of different flag makers. You can see the real Star Spangled Banner at The Smithsonian Institution Web Site:

"The Star-Spangled Banner was made under government contract in the summer of 1813 by a professional Baltimore flag maker, Mary Pickersgill. Assisted by her 13-year old daughter, Caroline, and by two of her nieces, Eliza and Margaret Young, Mary may also have received help from her mother, Rebecca Young, who was a flag maker as well. To assemble the unusually large flag, Pickersgill laid it out on the floor of a neighboring brewery. She used English woolen bunting for the stripes and the union and cotton for the stars."

The original Star Spangled Banner was 30x42'

Francis Scott Key's original poem would later be set to the old English drinking song to become our National Anthem

Complete version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" showing spelling and punctuation from Francis Scott Key's manuscript in the Maryland Historical Society collection:

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.