Drew
Major
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2012
Francis Scott Key gets all the credit, yet, there were others involved.
Mary Young Pickersgill was born in Pennsylvania in 1776 and trained as a seamstress. She was married and then widowed in her late 20s with children and moved her family to Baltimore, Maryland where she established a signal flag business. Signal flags 200 years ago were used between ships to communicate with one another before radio existed.
Her business thrived and in 1813 then-Major George Armistead, Commandant of the U.S. Army garrison at Ft. McHenry, Maryland lobbied his bosses for money to make a new Garrison Flag, "so large the British could see it from a great distance." He won his case and the money was appropriated.
Mary Pickersgill won the contract for Major Armistead's new flag. She made it and what we know as our Star Spangled Banner was ultimately donated to the Smithsonian Institution by Armistead Family descendents under the condition that it remain the property of the American people in perpetiuty. Anyone can go and see it and you should if you are able.
Now, context is important when we talk about history. Mary Pickersgill made a lot of money and used it to address at least two social issues of concern in her time.
First, there were no public schools in Maryland as we understand them today. There was tuition that had to be paid. Mary Pickersgill took ads out in Maryland newspapers and asked the public for help. She said she would match, penny for penny, dollar for dollar, whatever money the public would contribute to allow children from poor families to learn to read and write and reckon. Money came in and she matched the contributions. Thousands of children in Maryland were schooled because of Pickersgill's action.
Second, care and housing for the indigent elderly. There was no "social safety net" 200 years ago. There was no Social Security. If you didn't have family able and willing to support you in old age, you were SOL. Pickersgill used her money to build retirement homes in and around Baltimore to provide housing and care for the elderly who needed it. I am aware of as least one Pickersgill Retirement Community in Baltimore County, Maryland named in her memory.
All of this two centuries ago. You can't make this stuff up.
Mary Young Pickersgill was born in Pennsylvania in 1776 and trained as a seamstress. She was married and then widowed in her late 20s with children and moved her family to Baltimore, Maryland where she established a signal flag business. Signal flags 200 years ago were used between ships to communicate with one another before radio existed.
Her business thrived and in 1813 then-Major George Armistead, Commandant of the U.S. Army garrison at Ft. McHenry, Maryland lobbied his bosses for money to make a new Garrison Flag, "so large the British could see it from a great distance." He won his case and the money was appropriated.
Mary Pickersgill won the contract for Major Armistead's new flag. She made it and what we know as our Star Spangled Banner was ultimately donated to the Smithsonian Institution by Armistead Family descendents under the condition that it remain the property of the American people in perpetiuty. Anyone can go and see it and you should if you are able.
Now, context is important when we talk about history. Mary Pickersgill made a lot of money and used it to address at least two social issues of concern in her time.
First, there were no public schools in Maryland as we understand them today. There was tuition that had to be paid. Mary Pickersgill took ads out in Maryland newspapers and asked the public for help. She said she would match, penny for penny, dollar for dollar, whatever money the public would contribute to allow children from poor families to learn to read and write and reckon. Money came in and she matched the contributions. Thousands of children in Maryland were schooled because of Pickersgill's action.
Second, care and housing for the indigent elderly. There was no "social safety net" 200 years ago. There was no Social Security. If you didn't have family able and willing to support you in old age, you were SOL. Pickersgill used her money to build retirement homes in and around Baltimore to provide housing and care for the elderly who needed it. I am aware of as least one Pickersgill Retirement Community in Baltimore County, Maryland named in her memory.
All of this two centuries ago. You can't make this stuff up.
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