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Transcribed by Francis Scott Key from notes on the back of an envelope immediately after the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor, on the night of Sept. 13-14, 1814, it was given by the author to his brother-in-law, Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson, who had a number of broadside copies printed at his own expense. The manuscript remained in the Nicholson family until the Judge's granddaughter Rebecca Post Shippen sold it in 1927 to Henry Walters, Baltimore railroad tycoon (Atlantic Coast Line, Louisville & Nashville). The price was said to be around $2,500.
The Star Spangled Banner manuscript was not included in the great collection of paintings which, with his house, Mr. Walters left to the city of Baltimore upon his death in 1931. Instead, as part of his private estate it was sent to New York for sale at public auction. When the news was broken to Mrs. Reuben Ross Holloway, a Colonial Dame, she issued a ringing pronouncement which ended:
"Come, Marylanders! A long effort and a strong effort to keep this manuscript in the State and in the city of Baltimore!"
Prior to the Manhattan auction, a paper manufacturer named Louis Schulman borrowed $5,000 to put to his own $10,000 to buy the manuscript and present it to President Roosevelt. Henry Jacques Gaisman, board chairman of Gillette Safety Razor, was willing to go to $7,500 to present it "to the American people." Before he could finish his speech bids went to $24,000 and the manuscript was sold to the ubiquitous Dr. Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach who calmed patriots by announcing that for a "small profit" he was acting on behalf of the trustees of the Walters Gallery. Thus the manuscript went right back where it had been for years.
*ART YOUNG'S INFERNO—Delphic Studios ($5).