Smithsonian National Museum of American History

This guide to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History centers on the flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the 1814 British bombardment and inspired Francis Scott Key, and on the Armistead family who kept it afterward. You'll hear why nineteenth-century relatives treated the giant banner as something to share rather than preserve, and how curators eventually measured just how much of it was gone. Look closely at the ragged edge before you learn what curators found when they compared it to the original dimensions.