Smithsonian's Museum of American History re-opens November 21st

After two years and $85 million, the National Museum of American History re-opens next month. The centerpiece of the renovation will be the 30 x 34-foot flag Francis Scott Key saw after the assault on Ft. McHenry on September 14, 1814 that inspired him to write the Star Spangled Banner. A five-story sky lit atrium now will greet visitors as they enter, and walls on the second and third floors have been removed to improve visibility.

The flag will be displayed behind floor-to-ceiling glass on a slight angle to reduce stress on the wool and cotton fabric, and the first stanza of Key's poem will appear above and behind it. The light in the new gallery will be adjusted to avoid further deterioration and replicate Key's view of the flag in Baltimore Harbor from the H.M.S. Tonnant, which had appeared at the Battle of Trafalgar nine years earlier. Smithsonian officials finished cleaning the flag in 2005 after six years (this is not a misprint), where the old linen backing was removed, the flag was vacuumed and a new backing was put on.

The museum will also display an original copy of the Gettysburg Address until January 2009. On loan from The White House, it is one of the few known copies of the address written by Abraham Linoln. The renovated museum will house artifacts ranging from the desk used by Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, to the shoes Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz, to a DNA fermenter that played a key role in biotechnology.

The idea for a museum of American history originated in the 1930s but took shape as World War II veterans returned home after seeing the great European museums. Built in 1964 with the same Tennesse pink marble as its neighbor, the West Building of National Gallery of Art, the museum was built in the international modern style. Artifacts like the Star Spangled Banner had been displayed in the Arts & Industries building across the Mall.

We'll keep you posted as the museum re-opens.

The SidewalkGuides team

Addendum March 12, 2009: We viewed the restored American flag recently and were impressed. The display is arranged somewhat like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence at the national Archives, a few doors down on Pennsylvania Avenue. Visitors walk into a darkened gallery with interpretive signs along the walls. As you continue through, the low-light display of the flag spreads out before you.

The exhibit tells the story of Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore flag maker who was hired to sew the flag that would fly over Ft. McHenry during the British bombardment. Pickersgill had made flags for various military and maritime organizations, but was asked by George Armistead, Commander of Ft. McHenry, to make a 30 x 42-foot flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes that quickly outgrew her house. Armistead said he wanted a flag so large that the British would have no problem seeing it from a distance. They didn't, and neither did Francis Scott Key.