VALUABLE MS.

Northern Advocate, 23 March 1934, Page 4

VALUABLE MS.

• ‘ STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.’ ’ SOLD AT AUCTION. The earliest authentic manuscript in existence of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which Francis Scott Key penned in Baltimore nearly 120 years ago, and which is said to have been sung first in a tavern there, is going back to Baltimore for permanent public enshrinement, states the “New York Times.” This single, time-yellowed sheet of paper on which Key wrote the national anthem in 18’14 was bought for 24,000 dollars (about’£4Soo) at auction at the American Art Assoeiation-Anderson Galleries, Inc., by Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, who announced that the new owner was the Walters Art. Gallery in Baltimore. This national historical document thus becomes a public possession. Two great granddaughters of Francis Scott Key, Mrs J. Allen Haines, and Mrs William P. Martin, both of New York, were sitting near the front of the crowded auction room when the manuscript, in a gilt tooled-leather frame, was brought out. Neither had ever seen it before it was placed on exhibition before the sale, “ i was so excited that my hands turned cold,” Mrs Haines said. “1 am delighted that the manuscript is going back to Baltimore.” The manuscript was the property of the estate of the late Henry Walters, of Baltimore and New York, financier, chairman of the board of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who died in 1931. He willed his entire art collection, together with the extensive gallery in Baltimore in which it was displayed, and the adjoining house, to the city of Baltimore. He also loft 25 per cent, of his estate in a trust fund for the city of Baltimore for the maintenance of the collection. Other Bidders.

I Mr Walters did not, however, leave 1 to the city of Baltimore, his manu,script of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which he is understood to have bought in 1007 for 2500 dollars. Accordingly it was [Hit up at auction by order of the executor of the estate, the Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Baltimore. When the auction was first announced, a movement was reported afoot in Baltimore to purchase the manuscript for that city. \’ow it lias been bought by the trustees of the art gallery that Mr Walters founded, out of funds bequeathed by him. At least two bidders were reported to be trying to buy the manuscript with the intention of presenting it to the nation. The tense and brief auction began with an opening bid of 5000 dollars by Thomas F. Madigan, autograph dealer. Immediately there were offers of 7500 dollars and 10,000 dollars. Thereafter the bids rose by 1000 dollar jumps al-

j most to the final figure, Gabriel Wells was the 'underbidder at 23,500 dollars. J 0. G. T. Sonneek, in the Library of J Congress report on “The Star-Spangled Banner,” called this manuscript “unquestionably . . . the earliest extant of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ ” Mr Sonneek described this as “not the original manuscript, but Key’s first clean copy of the original manuscript, sketched and finished under such peculiar circumstances.’’ He added: “What became of the sketch we do not know. The probabilities are that Key destroyed it after he had written out his poem at the hotel,’’ “Our Flag Was Still There.” Key conceived his stirring patriotic poem on board a British frigate during the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Md., by the British in 1814. He had gone aboard under a flag of truce and was not put ashore until after the engagement. Key, according to Mr Sonneck’s report, remained on deck during the night, watching every shell with breathless interest. “While the bombardment continued, it was sufficient proof that the fort had not surrendered,” Mr Sonneek wrote. “But it suddenly ceased some time before day, and as they had had no communication witli any of the enemy’s ships they did not know whether the fort had surrendered or the attack upon it had been abandoned.

‘ ‘ They paced the deck for the residue of the night in painful suspense, watching with intense anxiety for the return of day and looking every few minutes at their watches to see how long they must wait for it; and as soon as it dawned, and before it was light enough to see objects at a distance, their glasses were turned to the fort, uncertain whether they should see there the Stars and Stripes or the flag of the enemy. At length the light came, and they saw that ‘our (lag was still there.’” During the excitement Key had written part of a song —lines or notes which would help him in recalling his ideas later. These he had written on the back of a letter which he happened to have in his pocket. He is thought to have finished the poem in the boat on his way to the shore and to have written it out as It now stands at a hotel on the night he reached Baltimore. It was the manuscript written in Baltimore that was sold. I