The first print of “The Star-Spangled Banner” available for online bidding will be auctioned at Christie's June 2-18, 2020, as part of The Open Book: Fine Travel, Americana, Literature and History in Print and Manuscript Auction during the Classic Week sales streak. This first journalistic printing represents what would become the national anthem which was published in the Baltimore Patriot and Evening Advertiser on September 20, 1814, with the original title “The Defense of Fort M'Henry”, only three days after Francis Scott Key completed the text.
This rare pressing includes all four original lines of the song and is also the first time a copy has appeared at auction. This issue of The Baltimore Patriot & Evening Advertiser is one of two copies owned by the American Antiquarian Society (of three known in existence) and is being sold to benefit their collections acquisition fund. The estimate is $300.000-500.000.
Peter Klarnet, Senior Specialist, Books & Manuscripts comments: “The Sept. 20 issue of The Baltimore Patriot is significant not only because it carries the first appearance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a newspaper, but it also offers a window into the world in which it was written — chronicling the political convulsions of a nation that was bitterly divided during the War of 1812. Indeed, Francis Scott Key was an opponent of the conflict, but despite his doubts about the wisdom of going to war with the most powerful nation on earth at the time, he would stand with the raw militia that tried in vain to defend Washington in August and would celebrate the miraculous victory in Baltimore with what would become the young nation's official anthem. “
By the fall of 1814, the tide of the War of 1812 had turned in the United States. For much of that year, British forces ravaged the Chesapeake Bay coast and, in August, took Washington, burning its public buildings, including the White House and Capitol Hill. The outlook looked bleak for Baltimore as British forces began moving against the city in early September. The city came under a double attack by land and sea, and Fort McHenry, guarding the city's harbor, withstood a 27-hour bombardment.
Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old attorney from Maryland, was eight miles away aboard a British naval vessel negotiating the release of Dr. William Beane, a prominent physician who was taken prisoner. From that vantage point, Key witnessed the spectacular bombardment and on the morning of September 14, when the British ceased their attack, he saw that the American flag was still flying over Fort McHenry, inspiring him to write his tribute. The song not only celebrated the victory in Baltimore, but marked a significant turning point in American cultural history: a renewal of American patriotism and the elevation of the American flag as the nation's foremost cultural symbol.
Set to the tune “Anacreon in Heaven,” a popular English drinking song by John Stafford Smith (1740-1846), “The Star-Spangled Banner” took on a life of its own after the war and served, along with several other popular songs as one of the nation's "unofficial" anthems for much of the XNUMXth century. In 1931, Congress proclaimed "The Star-Spangled Banner" the official national anthem.
This issue of The Baltimore Patriot & Evening Advertiser is being sold by the American Antiquarian Society for the benefit of the Collections Acquisition Fund. This work is double in their collection. Founded in 1812 by printer Isaiah Thomas in Worcester, Massachusetts, the American Antiquarian Society is one of the oldest knowledge societies in the United States. Its primary mission is to collect, preserve, and make available printed materials in what became the United States from the seventeenth century to 1876. In 2014, the Society was awarded the National Humanities Medal, “for safeguarding American history. For more than two centuries, the Society has amassed an unprecedented collection of American historical documents, served as a research center for scholars and students, and connected generations of Americans to their cultural heritage. “
