Major George Armistead specified a flag so large that the British could see it from a distance, leading to the creation of the 30×42ft (9x13m) 15-star, 15-stripe Star-Spangled Banner Flag. [1042×1200]
Major George Armistead specified a flag so large that the British could see it from a distance, leading to the creation of the 30×42ft (9x13m) 15-star, 15-stripe Star-Spangled Banner Flag. [1042×1200]
The flag of Fort McHenry was massive – 30×42 feet (about 9×13 metres) and weighed around 50 pounds (23 kg). Major George Armistead ordered it “so large the British would have no difficulty seeing it” during the War of 1812. When British ships bombarded Baltimore for 25 straight hours in September 1814, they expected to take the city, but at dawn the flag was still flying, a sight that moved Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became *The Star-Spangled Banner.*
Key’s patriotic verses were later set to *“To Anacreon in Heaven,”* an English drinking song celebrating a London gentlemen’s club devoted to wine and music – the very nation just fought at Fort McHenry. The flag itself was made by Baltimore seamstress Mary Pickersgill, assisted by her daughter, nieces, and an African American apprentice named Grace Wisher.
After the battle, Armistead took the enormous flag home, and his family kept it for generations – occasionally cutting off small pieces as souvenirs for visitors and dignitaries. Nearly eight feet of the flag’s edge and one star are now missing. One surviving 2×5-inch scrap sold at auction in 2011 for $38,837. The rest, battered but still pretty monumental, is now preserved at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
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The flag of Fort McHenry was massive – 30×42 feet (about 9×13 metres) and weighed around 50 pounds (23 kg). Major George Armistead ordered it “so large the British would have no difficulty seeing it” during the War of 1812. When British ships bombarded Baltimore for 25 straight hours in September 1814, they expected to take the city, but at dawn the flag was still flying, a sight that moved Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became *The Star-Spangled Banner.*
Key’s patriotic verses were later set to *“To Anacreon in Heaven,”* an English drinking song celebrating a London gentlemen’s club devoted to wine and music – the very nation just fought at Fort McHenry. The flag itself was made by Baltimore seamstress Mary Pickersgill, assisted by her daughter, nieces, and an African American apprentice named Grace Wisher.
After the battle, Armistead took the enormous flag home, and his family kept it for generations – occasionally cutting off small pieces as souvenirs for visitors and dignitaries. Nearly eight feet of the flag’s edge and one star are now missing. One surviving 2×5-inch scrap sold at auction in 2011 for $38,837. The rest, battered but still pretty monumental, is now preserved at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
How many banana lengths is this flag?