The first U.S. flag ever called ‘Old Glory’ is back in Tennessee on display at the Tennessee State Museum on loan from the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
The flag was made for sea captain William Driver in 1824 who gave the flag its name and flew it on his ship as he sailed the world. Driver moved to Nashville in 1837, and the flag gained notoriety during the Civil War when he raised it at the State Capitol after Nashville was captured by the Union Army.
Smithsonian textile conservator Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss traveled to Nashville with the flag. She says flags tend to become historic icons.
“I love flags because flags have great history and great stories, and they’re always personal stories. They’re always involved with individual people, and it’s very moving to know that someone preserved this in a war when families were being torn apart.”
‘Old Glory’ was given by the Driver family to the Smithsonian in 1922. Thomassen-Krauss says the flag has not returned to Nashville until (today/yesterday).
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