Tom McMillan
Our Flag Was Still There: The story of the original Star-Spangled Banner
Learn about the improbable two-hundred year journey of the original Star-Spangled Banner—from Fort McHenry in 1814, when Francis Scott Key first saw it, to the Smithsonian today—and the enduring military family who defended, kept hid and ultimately donated the most famous flag in American history. It exists today in part because Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead, the hero of Fort McHenry, took it home as a souvenir after the battle, in violation of U.S. Army rules! Learn why the flag has 15 stripes; why it is eight feet shorter than its original length; and why it was once locked away in a vault in New York City for 27 years. But it’s still here!
The professional recording of this session was funded by a Preserving America grant from Americana Corner.
[Recorded on 12 August 2023]
Tom McMillan spent a lifetime in sports media and communications, but his true passion is history. Tom is the author of five books on American history and was a guest on our program earlier to discuss Armistead and Hancock: Behind the Gettysburg Legend of Two Friends at the Turning Point of the Civil War, and later, Our Flag Was Still There: The Star Spangled Banner that Survived the British and 200 Years—And the Armistead Family Who Saved It. You can find all of Tom’s History Camp Author Discussions as well as his presentations at our for our annual in-person event, History Camp Boston, in our archives.
He has served on the board of trustees of Pittsburgh’s Heinz History Center, on the board of directors of the Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, on the marketing committee of the Gettysburg Foundation, and as a tour guide at the Civil War room at Carnegie Library in Carnegie, Pa. He also was co-director of the Pittsburgh Center for Sports Media and Marketing at Point Park University, his alma mater. Tom currently serves as co-host of the “Antietam and Beyond” podcast and is a facilitator of the Adams County Historical Society’s battlefield leadership program in Gettysburg.
He spent 18 years in the Pittsburgh sports media as a newspaper writer and radio talk-show host before joining the staff of the Penguins. During his media career, he covered the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, and three NCAA Final Fours. He has three Stanley Cup rings from his time with the Penguins, and his name is on the 2009 Stanley Cup.
Tom and his wife, Colleen, volunteer at Antietam National Battlefield, the Adams County Historical Society and historic Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg. They split their time between Pittsburgh and Gettysburg.
