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Star-Spangled Banner
[La
MarseillaiseÞ] Composed by Francis Scott Key in 1814, it was ordered played at Army and Navy occasions by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, but was not designated the U.S. national anthem by an Act of Congress until 1931. It consists of four verses, but on almost every occasion, only the first verse is sung: 1 Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there. Oh! say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? 2 On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected, now shines in the stream. 'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner! Oh! long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! 3 And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave. And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 4 Oh! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation, Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto - "In God is our trust." And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. During the War of 1812, on September 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. Entitled "The Star-Spangled Banner," the poem soon attained wide popularity, as sung to the tune "To Anacreon in Heaven." The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. On October 19, 1998, the National Museum of American History embarked upon the latest phase of a long-term project to preserve and protect its best-known artifact and the single most powerful symbol of the American nation - the original Star-Spangled Banner. Lasting over three years and costing millions of dollars, the conservation project will be the most extensive and complex ever undertaken by the museum. During conservation, the 185-year old flag will be housed in a new laboratory located in the west wing of the second floor. Starting in spring 1999, visitors will be able to see the conservators at work on the flag as well as a temporary exhibition about the Star-Spangled Banner. The exhibition will explain the process of conservation, the development of the flag as America's primary national symbol, and the Smithsonian's role as caretaker of the flag during most of the twentieth century.
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