“Star Spangled Banner.”

The flag became a valued keepsake of Major George Armistead, the commander of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, and was retained by his descendants. Eventually, the family came to believe that the Star Spangled Banner belonged in a museum as an artifact of national heritage. Armistead’s grandson, Eben Appleton corresponded with Smithsonian Secretary Charles D. Walcott. In 1907, Appleton gave the flag on loan to the Smithsonian Institution and he converted the loan to a gift in 1912. The flag was restored by the Smithsonian Institution in 1914 and again in 1999.