The flag is waving far and vast this summer time.
Amid celebrations and ceremonies marking America’s 250th anniversary, the Stars and Stripes take middle stage because of a wave of flag-centric occasions, exhibitions and ceremonies throughout the nation.
Since 1776, the flag has had greater than two dozen makeovers — 27, to be actual — making it a residing document of a nation that continues to evolve. Right here’s the place to see it, in all its glory, from sea to shining sea.
Maryland
Betsy Ross will be the OG Stars and Stripes seamstress, however Baltimorean Mary Pickersgill’s hand-sewn 30-by-42-foot garrison flag is the banner that impressed the nation’s anthem.
In 1814, it flew over Fort McHenry throughout a British bombardment, giving Francis Scott Key the inspiration he wanted to write down “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The unique artifact, commissioned in 1813, is now housed on the Smithsonian Establishment’s Nationwide Museum of American Historical past in Washington, DC, however Baltimore’s Star-Spangled Banner Flag Home and Museum, which preserves Pickersgill’s circa-1793 house, pays homage to her accomplishments as a seamstress, businesswoman and philanthropist.
“We attempt to spotlight simply how a lot she did for not solely her local people and the nation, however for us,” mentioned museum government director Chris Sniezek. “We’re nonetheless feeling the results of her influence, even immediately.”
On-site is a true-to-scale reproduction of Pickersgill’s unique — whose imposing dimension was meant to intimidate British attackers. With simply eight weeks to tug off the mission, Pickersgill and her staff used greater than 400 yards of material (together with, paradoxically, English wool bunting) to create a flag so huge they needed to assemble it in a native brewery.
Over at Fort McHenry Nationwide Monument and Historic Shrine, a modern-day Star-Spangled Banner nonetheless waves 24/7. Summer time programming consists of each day flag modifications, ranger talks and performances of the quintessential Colonial-era soundtrack by the Fort McHenry Guard Fife and Drum Corps.
Baltimore’s collective pleasure in its flag-tastic historical past runs deep year-round, nonetheless. Defender’s Day, its oldest vacation, is widely known on Sept. 12 to commemorate town’s profitable stand in opposition to the British.
Pennsylvania
Talking of Betsy Ross, did she actually sew that first American flag?
Guests can resolve for themselves on the Betsy Ross Home, the place, in line with oral historical past, the 24-year-old widow stitched a flag with 13 stars in a circle and 13 red-and-white stripes — with the objective of making a robust image of unity for a brand-new nation (no stress).
Alongside details about ongoing analysis to settle the large query, Betsy herself (i.e., a costumed interpreter) fortunately solutions customer inquiries — like why she instructed five-pointed stars as a substitute of the unique six-pointed ones. Excursions embrace entry to rotating exhibitions on the not too long ago opened Flagmakers’ Corridor.
In the meantime, a go to to Pittsburgh’s Nationwide Flag Basis Training Heart, devoted to flag historical past, schooling and dealing with etiquette, will whip your symbology expertise into form (enjoyable truth: the group of fifty stars is named the union).
New York
Albany is house to the nation’s largest publicly held flag assortment. Huge and diversified, this flamboyance of emblems will enthrall informal fanatics and critical vexillologists alike.
Established in 1863, the gathering is housed throughout the Flag Room at Empire State Plaza and the New York State Navy Museum in Saratoga Springs. It incorporates greater than 2,200 flags relationship again to the Battle of 1812. Roughly 60 % are from the Civil Battle, and greater than 500 have been professionally conserved to date.
Battle scars add to the enchantment of those time-worn beauties, and as a substitute of restoring the artifacts to their unique look, conservation preserves what’s left, letting holes, tears and even bloodstains “assist inform the story of the flag,” mentioned Chris Morton, affiliate curator on the New York State Navy Museum, who oversees the gathering.
“Why would we need to conceal the battle injury that was inflicted upon the flag as the colour bearer heroically led the regiment throughout the battlefield?”
In Western New York, Outdated Fort Niagara is North America’s oldest repeatedly occupied navy website and homes one of many oldest U.S. flags in existence — one among solely about 20 recognized surviving examples of the Stars and Stripes relationship from earlier than 1815.
After being captured by the British and despatched to Canada and later Scotland, the flag, which was commissioned in 1809, returned to the U.S. within the mid-Nineties. A $6 million customer middle opened in 2006 to deal with the uncommon artifact, whose necessities rival a diva celeb’s rider checklist.
“You possibly can’t cling it vertically as a result of it stresses out the fibers, so it’s displayed at an angle in its personal little environmental cubicle. The sunshine within the chamber is managed, the humidity is managed, and the temperature is managed with particular HVAC techniques,” defined Bob Emerson, government director of the fort, which is able to host an America 250 occasion on Aug. 1.
Tennessee
For a literal style of Outdated Glory, head to Clarksville, Tenn., the place you’ll be hard-pressed to discover a extra patriotic place for a tipple than Outdated Glory Distilling Co. Flags are omnipresent, each on bottle labels and all through the distillery and on-site restaurant.
Founder Matt Cunningham opened the distillery in 2016, aiming to create a spot the place the local people and repair members stationed at close by Fort Campbell, Kentucky, might sit back. The previous firefighter additionally needed the “grain-to-glass” distillery, which produces “rattling superb” Tennessee whiskey, bourbon and different spirits, to replicate the work ethic and integrity of Forties America.
“That was a time interval when folks gave a rattling about no matter it was they did, whether or not they have been a woodworker, metalworker or preventing in World Battle II,” Cunningham mentioned. “We needed to symbolize these sturdy American values and create a model round that.”
South Carolina
In true Americana spirit, the flag takes an epic summer time street journey yearly: about 15,000 miles over 115 days to all 50 states, billowing from a motorbike and joined by as many as 500 different riders.
In its seventeenth yr, the Patriot Tour is organized by Nation of Patriots, a nonprofit that has raised greater than $2.5 million for US veterans and their households.
The 2026 tour is scheduled to achieve Aiken, South Carolina, for the Fourth of July earlier than heading farther south after which west, the place stops embrace Seligman, Arizona, on Historic Route 66.
California
For many years, Disneyland Park in Anaheim has quietly carried out a patriotic custom that tends to get overshadowed by Mouse mania: each day flag ceremonies.
Workers have raised and lowered the American flag daily since July 17, 1955 — even in the course of the pandemic — in a celebrated ritual that includes performances by the Disneyland Band.
The same ceremony has taken place at Kissimmee’s Magic Kingdom because it opened in 1971, a practice that features a service member or veteran chosen from the park’s each day guests because the “U.S. Armed Forces Consultant of the Day.”
Colorado
At Cloud Camp, a luxe wilderness retreat at The Broadmoor Lodge in Colorado Springs, facilities embrace a scorching tub within the treetops and elevated consolation meals. However for a lot of visitors, essentially the most memorable second of their keep comes each night with the retreat’s signature flag ceremony.
At exactly 5:50 p.m., Outdated Glory is lowered from her workers as “America the Stunning” performs. Many visitors are shocked to study the track traces its origins to close by Pikes Peak, the well-known fourteener that impressed Katharine Lee Bates to write down the lyrics after she reached the highest in 1893.
Workers rotate a number of variations of the track, although “the fan favourite is Frank Sinatra,” mentioned Kurt Reineke, resort supervisor of Cloud Camp. Whichever one performs, many visitors discover themselves misty-eyed listening to the music within the very panorama that impressed it.
“Once we get service members up there, I’ve seen tears simply flowing,” Reineke mentioned. “It’s very emotional and touching.”
