(1)The young widow Mary Pickersgill and her daughter, Caroline, moved to the corner house at Albemarle and Queen (now Pratt) str
eets in the heart of Old Town, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1807. Like her mother before her, Pickersgill had decided to make her living in the flag-making business. In a major port city like Baltimore, a hardworking maker of flags would be in great demand.
(2)Pickersgill's most famous commission came in 1813, during the second year of the War of 1812, often referred to as the "second war of independence." Baltimore was defended by a brick star-shaped fort named Fort McHenry. The commandant of the fort was Major George Armistead. He decided to have a gigantic battle flag made to rally his troops. In a report to General Samuel Smith, the commander of the defense of Baltimore, Armistead wrote, "We are ready [for the expected British attack] except that we have no suitable ensign to display over the Star Fort, and it is my desire to have a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance."
(3)Pickersgill was selected by Commodore Joshua Barney, the commander of the American flotilla (small fleet) in the Chesapeake Bay, and General John Stricker (both important strategists during the War of 1812) to make the enormous garrison flag as well as a storm flag (for use in poor weather and possibly during battles). The flag that she designed and sewed by hand had fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, to represent the fifteen states in the Union in 1813. Pickersgill sewed five-pointed white stars measuring two feet from point to point on a blue field in the upper left-hand corner of the flag. The stars were arranged in five lines of three stars each.
(4)Ironically, in a war in which the American flag stood as a symbol of defiance against Britain, four hundred yards of wool bunting imported from England (before the blockade of Baltimore's port) were used to make the flag. The fabric was manufactured in eighteen-inch bolts. To complete the twenty-four-inch-wide stripes needed for the flag, Mary hand-sewed six-inch strips to each eighteen-inch piece of fabric. So much hand-sewing was involved in making this giant flag, along with the eighteen-by-twenty-five-foot storm flag, that about six weeks was needed to complete the commission.
(5)A letter written by Caroline Pickersgill describes how her mother often worked until midnight to complete the flags on time. Caroline helped her mother with the sewing, as did her cousins Eliza, Margaret, and Jane Young. Mary Pickersgill's mother also may have helped.
(6)When the flag was done, it measured thirty feet hoist (vertical measurement) by forty-two feet fly (horizontal measurement). Major Armistead's signed receipt for the two flags is preserved today at the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House and 1812 Museum in Baltimore. The receipt shows that Mary was paid $405.90 for the giant Star-Spangled Banner and $168.54 for the storm flag.
(7)Today the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write his poem during the Battle of Baltimore is on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The flag had been an heirloom of the Armistead family until it was given to the Smithsonian in 1912. Expert seamstresses worked for weeks to conserve the Star-Spangled Banner by hand-stitching it to a backing of fine Irish linen. A curtain protecting the flag from light and dust was added in 1982.
(8)The Star-Spangled Banner was so large that Mary Pickersgill finished it at Brown's Brewery, a block away from her home. To understand how big the flag is, use string to create a rectangle measuring forty-two feet by thirty feet in your yard or in a playground.
The Early Life of Mary Young Pickersgill
(9)Mary Young was born on February 12, 1776, in Philadelphia. Her father, William Young, died when she was barely two years old. Her mother, Rebecca Flower Young, had made the Continental Colors flag that George Washington raised over his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 1, 1776. During the Revolution, Rebecca made flags to help support her family, first in Philadelphia and then in Baltimore. Her advertisement in the Philadelphia Advertiser in 1780 and the Pennsylvania Packet in 1781 reads, "Colours for the Army and Navy made and sold on the most reasonable terms By Rebecca Young."
(10)When Mary was nineteen, she married John Pickersgill. The Pickersgills had four children, but only their daughter Caroline survived past infancy. John accepted a position as a claims agent in England, where he died on June 14, 1805. Mary and Caroline moved to Baltimore and became involved in the flag-making business.
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