Today marks the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key's composition of "The Star-Spangled Banner". Immensely popular beginning with its first appearance in a Baltimore newspaper on September 20, 1812, it still took more than 100 years to be officially recognized. President Woodrow Wilson authorized the song's use as our national anthem in 1916.
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| Anna Case with flag unfurled, 1917. |
It took less than a year for Hillsborough's own Anna Case to become the nation's most renowned interpreter of the anthem.
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| 13 October 1918 New York Times |
A popular 1917 Edison Diamond Disc recording and innumerable concert performances over the next decade, combined to make Anna Case as intertwined with "The Star-Spangled Banner" as Kate Smith would later become with "God Bless America". (A song written in 1918 by Anna Case's future son-in-law, Irving Berlin!)
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| 16 June 1941 Courier News |
For more about Anna and the Anthem, check out my previous piece here.
