Star Spangled Banner

Lester S. Levy bagged his first-edition copy of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1940 for $170, appreciably less than an anonymous buyer plunked down — $506,5000 — 70 years later on Dec. 3 at Christie's Auction House in New York, for the rare two-page piece of sheet music, one of 11 copies extant. My colleague, Chris Kaltenbach, writing in The Baltimore Sun, reported that the sale doubled its pre-auction estimates and set a world record for a single piece of sheet music.

"When we say 'turtle,' you say 'power,'" Jamie Trost called out to a group of eighth-graders. And when the students from St. Jane Frances School in Pasadena hollered "power," they pulled hard on the ropes, hoisting the sails of the Pride of Baltimore II. It was the first part of a lesson, teaching the teens you can't give strong, coordinated tugs without a good grunt, and also how privateers during the War of 1812 got their sleek ships moving...

Oh Say Can You See …half a million dollars? A rare first edition of the sheet music for "The Star-Spangled Banner" sold for $506,500 at Christie's Auction House in New York Friday, doubling pre-auction estimates of its value and setting a world auction record for sheet music. The two-page piece of sheet music, published by a Baltimore printer in 1814, was sold to a private U.S. collector who wishes to remain anonymous, Christie's spokeswoman Sung-Hee Park said. It is one of only 11 copies of that first printing known to exist, and apparently remains the only one in private hands.

For the better part of a decade, Jill Crowther-Peters has portrayed the widowed seamstress who stitched the Star-Spangled Banner, but on Thursday she had the chance to really feel what it was like to be her. Crowther-Peters, dressed as 19th-century flag maker Mary Pickersgill, stopped to savor the moment as she helped darn three threads from the original banner into a 30-foot American flag that flew over Ground Zero in New York after the Sept....

A key document in the transition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" from popular song to national anthem is coming home to Fort McHenry. A draft of the song's arrangement, drawn up in the early 20th century by a committee that included composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa, has been donated to the national monument and historic shrine by the woman whose father obtained it from his music teacher. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem by an act of Congress in 1931.

The family feel to the second annual "Baltimore Bash" went beyond the expected at the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House fund-raiser. The party had been postponed from Sept. 15 because of the events of Sept. 11. So its themes of family and country seemed intensified. But so was the fun. Inside the Baltimore Brewing Co. building next door to the Flag House, kids created artistic masterpieces at a crafts table. They also pasted red and blue stickers on a large white posterboard to create a replica of the flag, while their parents scanned the silent auction table nearby.

"The Flag, The Poet & The Song: The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner," by Irvin Molotsky. Dutton. 240 pages. $22.95. The story surrounding the writing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is certainly a familiar one to Marylanders, since it happened in their own backyard. Or is it? Irvin Molotsky, a New York Times reporter, has unmasked and exposed much of the historical nonsense that has surrounded the creation of the national anthem since its writing in 1814. And in doing so, he has written a thoroughly fascinating and meticulously researched account which examines the personalities and historical background behind "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Rabindra K. "Robbie" Gupta, a retired city planner and Maryland Historical Society security guard who was an expert on Francis Scott Key's original manuscript of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and enjoyed sharing his knowledge with museum visitors, died of a stroke Friday at Union Memorial Hospital. The North Baltimore resident was 70. Mr. Gupta, who was born and raised in New Delhi, was also educated in his native India. "He earned two bachelor's degrees and two master's degrees from universities in India, but the master's he was most proud of was the one in city planning from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in 1962," said his son, Andrew K. Gupta of Leesburg, Va. Mr. Gupta left India in 1960 to study at Harvard University.

As dawn's early light breaks over the nation's 221st birthday, historians in Baltimore and Washington say they have solved a long-standing mystery of the Star-Spangled Banner.This week, historians finished piecing together the puzzle of its travels through the 19th century, when the enormous flag was preserved in private homes in Baltimore and Boston, and made appearances in New York and Philadelphia.The made-in-Baltimore flag that was still there after the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 was given to the Smithsonian Institution in 1907.

WASHINGTON - Its seams are tattered and its colors soiled, yet even in the murky light at the Museum of American History here, the flag that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner" has a special glow. But that glow is beginning to dim.Dust, light, heat, humidity and pollution are slowly ravaging a piece of American history - a very big piece that weighs 150 pounds and measures 1,020 square feet.Halfway across the continent, in the nation's heartland, another storied symbol of the past awaits attention.

Barb and Greg Damon traveled to Maryland from Oregon to run a marathon and left with an unusual souvenir. The Damons were among the first people who went to Fort McHenry Monday to purchase commemorative coins created by the United States Mint to mark the bicentennial of the War of 1812. Barb Damon said she and her husband ran in the B&A Trail Marathon over the weekend as part of a quest to complete a marathon in every state. She said they also collect coins and couldn't pass up the chance to purchase a coin on the first day it was issued.

A key document in the transition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" from popular song to national anthem is coming home to Fort McHenry. A draft of the song's arrangement, drawn up in the early 20th century by a committee that included composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa, has been donated to the national monument and historic shrine by the woman whose father obtained it from his music teacher. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the national anthem by an act of Congress in 1931.

A Havre de Grace company is producing commemorative 15-star, 15-stripe U.S. flags, replicas of the Star-Spangled Banner that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem following the all-night British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814. The U.S. made flags - which also feature the official Star-Spangled 200 bicentennial logo - are available through F. W. Haxel Flag Co. in two versions: a printed nylon flag for $20 and a limited-edition, sewn nylon flag with appliqued stars $73.50.

Warm temperatures and clear skies brought weekend crowds to the new $15 million visitor center at Fort McHenry, temporary home to an original draft of "The Star-Spangled Banner. " Among the popular new attractions are the draft of the poem by Francis Scott Key that became the national anthem, on loan from the Maryland Historical Society until June 14, Flag Day. A new film, which uses graphics and re-enactments to show viewers about the War of 1812, Baltimore's role in it and how Key came to write the first few lines of the national anthem, is another upgrade that proved popular among visitors.

After Francis Scott Key scrawled down the four verses of "The Star-Spangled Banner," he left four fold marks from putting it in his breast pocket. Nearly 200 years later, the historic document is handled with far more reverence and care. It's kept in an argon-filled case for preservation, and on Tuesday, when caretakers moved it from Baltimore to Annapolis — its first known trip out of the city — they put it in an armored truck followed by two state police cars and a half-dozen city police on motorcycles.

Lester S. Levy bagged his first-edition copy of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1940 for $170, appreciably less than an anonymous buyer plunked down — $506,5000 — 70 years later on Dec. 3 at Christie's Auction House in New York, for the rare two-page piece of sheet music, one of 11 copies extant. My colleague, Chris Kaltenbach, writing in The Baltimore Sun, reported that the sale doubled its pre-auction estimates and set a world record for a single piece of sheet music.

For those who love Maryland's place in American history, there is no more precious artifact than the oversized American flag that flew triumphantly over Fort McHenry in the dawn's early light on the morning of Sept. 14, 1814, after a futile British assault that marked one of the turning points in the War of 1812. The flag and the fort were center stage when Francis Scott Key framed "The Star-Spangled Banner" a song that much later became our vocally challenging national anthem. Major George Armistead, who commanded the American force at Fort McHenry, commissioned Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore flag maker, to sew a flag "so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance."

Oh Say Can You See …half a million dollars? A rare first edition of the sheet music for "The Star-Spangled Banner" sold for $506,500 at Christie's Auction House in New York Friday, doubling pre-auction estimates of its value and setting a world auction record for sheet music. The two-page piece of sheet music, published by a Baltimore printer in 1814, was sold to a private U.S. collector who wishes to remain anonymous, Christie's spokeswoman Sung-Hee Park said. It is one of only 11 copies of that first printing known to exist, and apparently remains the only one in private hands.

I read with great interest the article "Rare copy of the 'Star Spangled Banner' goes on the auction block" (Nov. 30), but I feel that the publisher of the item to be auctioned, Thomas Carr, continues to not get the recognition he deserves. Carr not only ran a music store but was also the organist at Old St. Paul's Episcopal Church. While Chris Coover, a senior book and manuscript specialist at Christie's auction house says that "[Carr] may not have known that Francis Scott Key was the author," Key most certainly did know him since Key was a strong Episcopalian and a good friend of the Old St. Paul's rector at that time, Bishop Kemp.