The Star Spangled Banner

Throughout the year, visitors to Washington, DC, pause to view the flag which inspired the US national anthem. The 185-year-old flag, the Star Spangled Banner, is massive (9.75 x 10.4 meters).
Its 15 white cotton 5-pointed stars are on a blue field of English wool bunting, with 15 stripes, eight red and seven white, of wool bunting. The linen backing is more than half its weight of about 68 kilos.
Unlike today's flag, the flag of the early 19th century had one stripe as well as one star for each state currently in the Union. This handsewn flag was made in the summer of 1813, 36 years after the Stars and Stripes pattern was adopted as the U.S. national flag.
With the War of 1812 still raging against the British and after they had burned the US Capitol and White House in Washington, this flag flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore on the night of September 13, 1814, as British ships began bombarding the fort. On a British truce ship out in the harbour, Francis Scott Key, a young American lawyer who was negotiating the release of a prisoner, watched anxiously as the bombardment continued into the night.
He was so relieved to see the flag still flying in the morning that he wrote a poem of the occasion, "The Star-Spangled Banner." He ironically set it to the tune of a popular English song to commemorate the American victory. Key's poem was adopted as the National Anthem in 1931.
The flag itself was given to the commander of Ft. McHenry, and his family donated the flag to the Smithsonian Institution in 1907, when it was subsequently placed on public display. Beginning in 1964, the Smithsonian's new National Museum of American History prominently displayed the flag in its specially designed site at the main entrance on the National Mall.
The Star-Spangled Banner flag has been faded by weather and age, and damaged during its long-time display by the influences of light, pollution and humidity. As a national treasure, the flag was included in the White House millennium plans for the preservation of America's treasures.
The flag was removed from display in October 1998 and laid flat for analysis to determine the best conservation treatment. The public has been able to observe the work through windows in the conservation lab. After approximately three years, the museum intends to re-exhibit the banner in an environmentally controlled glass case. The preservation project can be followed at http://web8.si.edu/nmah/htdocs/ssb-old/7_preserving/fs7.html.