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September 14:  “Birthday” of the “The Star Spangled Banner”  

Today’s post was written by Gail E. Farr, Archives Specialist at the National Archives at Philadelphia, and Zvi Rosen, J.D., Visiting Scholar at the George Washington University School of Law.

As readers may know, the words to our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” originated as a poem composed by Francis Scott Key. Key, who had witnessed the bombardment of American forces at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, during the night of September 13–14, 1814, was moved to see the American flag still flying above the fort on the morning of September 14.  He subsequently composed four verses to commemorate the sight, and the perseverance of the American forces fighting at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.   September 14 has therefore come to be recognized as the “birthday” of “The Star Spangled Banner.”  

The words were found to be a good match to the tune of a well-known British song.  The words set to this melody became increasingly popular throughout the U.S. in the nineteenth century.    In 1916, President Woodrow issued an Executive Order which proclaimed “The Star Spangled Banner” to be the American national anthem—a choice confirmed by Congressional resolution in 1931.

               National Archives at Philadelphia staff are honored that such an important piece of Americana has its roots in one of the states in our region.  We were also very interested to learn that the words to Key’s poem were copyrighted in the U.S. District Court of Delaware by James Wilson, printer of a book entitled The Star Spangled Banner: Being a Collection of the Best Naval, Martial, Patriotic Songs, & c., Chiefly Written during, and in relation to the Late War, published by J. Wilson, no. 105 Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware, on February 27, 1816.  The registration appears as No. 23 of copyrights registered in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, featured in today’s Facebook post.

The original registration is found in a series of Delaware federal court records entitled “Registers for Naturalization, 1797-1905,” the first volume of which (1797-1869) is devoted mainly to copyright registrations.   The book contained the words to Key’s poem, including Key’s four stanzas plus two stanzas written and added by someone else

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