Mary Young Pickersgill - Legacy

Legacy

Besides making the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the words to the United States National Anthem, Pickersgill is also remembered for her humanitarian contributions to society, evident in her decades-long presidency of the Impartial Female Humane Society, which eventually evolved into the Pickersgill Retirement Community of Towson, Maryland. She is also remembered for her house, known as the Flag House & Star-Spangled Banner Museum, which stands at the corner of Albemarle and Pratt Streets in Baltimore and is a National Historic Landmark.

About the time of the American bicentennial, Robert McGill Mackall created a painting depicting Mary Pickersgill and her helpers in the malt house of a brewery, sewing the Star-Spangled Banner. A copy of the painting is maintained by the Maryland Historical Society. Mary Pickersgill was the namesake of a World War II Liberty ship, the SS Mary Pickersgill, launched in 1944. In addition, a type of flower is known as the Mary Pickersgill Rose.

In 1998, I. Michael Heyman, Sectretary of the Smithsonian Institution wrote:

"I am often asked which of our more than 140 million objects is our greatest treasure, our most valued possession. Of all the questions asked of me, this is the easiest to answer: our greatest treasure is, of course, the Star-Spangled Banner."