12-26, The Flag House, Baltimore

On this day, we also toured the house of Mary Pickersgill. In 1813, Mary was contracted to sew a flag which was to fly over Baltimore's Fort McHenry. The hand-sewn flag was 30' x 42'! This flag was flying over Fort McHenry when it was attacked by the British a year later. It was during this attack that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem which was later set to music and become our national anthem.

This replica of the flag that Mary made is the same size. That's a lot of work!