Burt Kummerow is president of the Maryland Historical Society. The organization will unveil a bicentennial exhibit of Maryland’s role in the War of 1812, featuring hundreds of artifacts and documents including the original manuscript of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The exhibit opens June 10 at 201 W. Monument St. in Baltimore.
Why is it called the War of 1812 if much of fighting happened in 1814?
I don’t know who named it, but it stuck. It’s also known as America’s Second War of Independence. It’s one of those stories that’s a tiny footnote in school, but it was really a make-or-break time for the United States.
How important was Maryland?
This is ground zero for the war’s events. The fact that Baltimore repelled the British after the burning of Washington. It gave us the national anthem.
What were the British doing?
We were totally unprepared to fight the most powerful country in the world.
They bottled up the Chesapeake and really hurt our trade. They started to raid around the Bay for food and supplies; that was destruction for plantation owners. Hundreds of slaves, the basis of the plantation labor supply, fled and were seized by the British. It took decades for the region to recover from the war.
You have Francis Scott Key’s original manuscript?
He wrote it down at a tavern in downtown Baltimore. We think he gave it to his brother-in-law, Joseph Hopper Nicholson, and it sat in a desk for about 75 years. It probably survived by luck. Nobody was thinking of it as the national anthem at the time. It was a popular song, but it took until 1931 to become the national anthem.
What is your favorite item that was unexpectedly found?
We discovered Joshua Barney’s sword belt. Revolutionary veteran and naval hero Barney commanded the Chesapeake Flotilla and was a hero at the Battle of Bladensburg. The belt is Moroccan leather, highly decorated. To think of him running around the Chesapeake with this fancy thing on, it’s amazing.
– Scott McCabe
