Star Spangled Banner Being Replicated
Several area women are among the more than 100 volunteers participating in the Maryland Historical Society’s “Stitching History” project. Their goal is to recreate the 30-foot by 42-foot flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Using period materials and stitching techniques, the flag will be an authentic reproduction of the original and is expected to take six weeks to be completed. Work began on July 4 with fanfare in Baltimore at the Fort McHenry National Monument and Shrine. The first stitch was sewn by Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Since then, the volunteers have been working up to eight hours a day at the society’s France Hall. Above, local residents Nadine Brinhendler (left) and Nadine Baughman (right) look on as “Mary Pickersgill,” the original seamstress of the Star-Spangled Banner, explains the stitching techniques they will use for the replica. Pickersgill, a flag maker, worked with her daughter Caroline, nieces Eliza and Margaret Young, and African American indenture servant Grace Wisher to complete the original flag in six weeks during the summer of 1813. Some of Pickersgill’s descendants are participating in Stitching History. The finished flag will be flown at the Fort McHenry National Monument on Defender’s Day in September. In 2014, it will be transported to the Smithsonian’s American History Museum, where the original banner is on display. In addition, the original “Star-Spangled Banner” manuscript, penned in Francis Scott Key’s hand, will temporarily travel from the Maryland Historical Society to be reunited with the banner for the first time.
Posted on 07/23/2013 in deep creek lake
