Happy July Fourth – Francis Scott Key Stamp

The United States commemorated Francis Scott Key with a postage stamp in 1948. Chiefly, Key is known as the writer of the lyrics for the “Star Spangled Banner” in 1814. The song later became the national anthem of the United States. This Fourth of July post is about this song, its writer, and the stamp in his honor.

Most postage stamps are the creation of governments. As such, they are political documents. Therefore, many stamps have political messages, either overt or subtle. The more obvious messages celebrate national heroes, rulers, and symbols. Among music stamps, national anthems would fit this category. For example, here are some posts on this blog featuring the national anthems of Guatemala, Canada,  Uruguay, Chile, and Liberia.

Richard Scott More, Curator of the British Library’s Philatelic Collection wrote that “National anthems are a popular way for nations to eulogise their history, traditions and struggles musically since the nineteenth century . . .” Read his further comments about the topics on this blog post. In addition, you can find a lot of good information about such stamps on the blog The Anthem Philatelist.

The Event

The song we now know as “The Star-Spangled Banner,” is about a very specific event. Following the burning of Washington D.C. on September 3, 1814, Key went to Baltimore on an official mission. He was to secure an exchange of prisoners with the British. After successfully negotiating the trade, the British held Key while they attacked Fort McHenry. He was to watch the bombardment while in British captivity.

The attack took place on September 13th, which was a rainy night. The next morning, Francis Scott Key wrote the poem, the “Defence of Fort M’Henry. In particular, the inspiration for the song was a large American flag, the “Star Spangled Banner,” flying above the fort throughout the battle. Some of the lines were from an earlier poem by Key, “When the Warrior Returns.’ Key wrote both poems so they could be sung to a popular British melody by John Stafford Smith. Key’s lyrics were published in The Analectic Magazine in November of 1814.

The song grew in popularity throughout the nineteenth century. On military bases, bands would play the song each evening at retreat, as well as to end parades and other events. Officially, the U.S. Navy began to use the song in 1899. Then, in 1916, Woodrow Wilson ordered that the song be played at military and other occasions. A nation-wide effort led by the Veterans of Foreign Wars finally resulted in the song being adopted as the official national anthem in 1931.

Controversy

Of course, the song has always been controversial. It is tremendously difficult to sing and many feel it is not worthy of national anthem status. Others suggest that the song is about the flag and not about the country.

Yet, most significantly, there has always been controversy because of the third verse of the song. One of the issues during the War of 1812 was that Britain provided refuge for enslaved peopled who escaped. In the third verse of the song, Key wrote, “No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.” Many read those lyrics as a threat to Black people who escaped enslavement.

Key was from a wealthy plantation-owning family that enslaved people. He spoke of Black people as an inferior race and, later in his career, while the District Attorney for Washington D.C. he strengthened the power of slave owners and ridiculed abolitionists. You can read more about the controversy here.

For all of these reasons, many would like to see a different song such as “God Bless America,” or “America the Beautiful,” replace “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem.

The Stamp

The Francis Scott Key stamp was part of an explosion of commemorative postage stamps that occurred in 1948 and 1949. In those two years alone, thirty-four commemorative stamps were produced. Subsequently, a limit was placed on the number of commemorative stamps within a given year. Read more about these stamps at the National Postal Museum site.

The Francis Scott Key stamp is engraved using a rose or red color ink. The stamp design is horizontal and features a portrait of Key in an oval in the center. To the left is a fifteen-star American flag from as it appeared in 1814. On the right, a forty-eight star flag, the official flag when the stamp was made in 1948. In the lower right hand corner is Fort McHenry with a ship in the harbor. To the lower left, is the Key family plantation.

One of the most famous renditions of the Star Spangled Banner was Whitney Houston’s performance from the 1991 Super Bowl. It is worth a listen or two. Happy Fourth!