"O! Say can you see"

Perhaps the most amazing thing I saw here is the Star Spangled Banner...the actual flag which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that would become our National Anthem. This exhibit is one in which you can't take pictures, so the pictures below are taken from the exhibit's blog. I can't accurately describe the feeling I had here.

As you enter the exhibit, the outside wall is filled with information about Francis Scott Key and the events leading up to that fateful battle. Then as you round the exhibit you see on your left a glass room, with this giant flag laid out. Behind the flag, on the wall, are projected the words to the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner. Seeing those words behind the actual banner talked about in them filled me with a sense of patriotism that is beyond explanation. As much as I loved my Lincoln Day, I would recommend this exhibit to anyone going to D.C.

I love singing the National Anthem, but I actually really prefer the fourth verse of the song. I'll leave you with those lyrics:

Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto, "In God is our trust"

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!