Previous The Star-Spangled Banner at the Boston Navy Yard, 1873. Courtesy American Antiquarian Society When Louisa Armistead died in 1861 she left the Star-Spangled Banner to her daughter, Georgiana Armistead Appleton. Mrs. Appleton lent the flag to naval historian Adm. George Preble, who took the first known photograph of the flag in 1873. He persuaded Mrs. Appleton to lend it to the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. After the exposition Mrs. Appleton considered donating the flag to a museum, but she died in 1878 without having made a decision.  Back to top

Courtesy Maryland Archives Louisa Armistead willed the flag to her youngest daughter, Georgiana, because she had been born at Fort McHenry and was named after her father, George Armistead. Louisa's son, Christopher, hired a lawyer to persuade his sister to surrender the flag to him, but she remained steadfast.  Back to top

National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution Georgiana Armistead Appleton's signature, dated June 24, 1876, was identified on the Star-Spangled Banner during the 1914 restoration. It is located on one of the fifteen stars. Above her signature is an inscription, "this precious relic of my father's fame I here by bequeath" then there is a hole where the rest of the writing has been cut out. It is possible that Mrs. Appleton intended to donate the Star-Spangled Banner to a museum and later changed her mind.  Back to top

National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution Certain people were granted the privilege of cutting fragments from the flag as souvenirs. "Indeed had we have given all we had been importuned for," Georgiana Appleton wrote, "little would be left to show." Owners of some of these historic fragments have given theirs to the Smithsonian.  Back to top