Old Glory
nickname for the flag of the United States
Old Glory is a nickname for the flag of the United States. The original "Old Glory" was a flag owned by the 19th-century American sea captain William Driver (March 17, 1803 – March 3, 1886). He flew the flag during his career at sea and later brought it to Nashville, Tennessee, where he settled. Driver greatly prized the flag and ensured its safety from the Confederates, who attempted to seize the flag during the American Civil War. In 1922, Driver's daughter and niece claimed to own the original "Old Glory", which became part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, which remains at the National Museum of American History.
History of the original "Old Glory"
Captain William Driver was born on March 17, 1803, in Salem, Massachusetts. At age 13, Driver ran away from home to become a cabin boy on a ship.
At 21, Driver qualified as a master mariner and assumed command of his own ship, the Charles Doggett. In celebration of his appointment, Driver's mother and other women sewed the flag and gave it to him as a gift in 1824. It was believed that while leaving the harbor, the Captain unfurled his new flag, calling out "Behold Old Glory." With this flag flying over his ship, Driver went on to have a colorful career as a U.S. merchant seaman, sailing to China, India, Gibraltar, and the South Pacific.
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This entry incorporates text from “Old Glory” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.