For three days this month, visitors will have a rare opportunity to stand beneath an American flag that has survived nearly 150 years, six generations of one family and a journey from the nation’s Centennial to its 250th anniversary.
The massive Sloan Centennial Flag, created for America’s 100th birthday celebration in 1876, will be on public display at the Alex Vega Key West Firehouse Museum, 1024 Grinnell St., on July 2, 3 and 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Measuring about 12 by 18 feet, the giant 13-star flag has remained in the Sloan family since the 19th century. It has been passed down from one David L. Sloan to the next for generations, a tradition that continues today with Key West author and firehouse museum board member David L. Sloan IV.
“This flag has witnessed nearly a century and a half of American history,” Sloan said. “Our family has simply been its caretakers.”
The last public display of the flag occurred during the nation’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976, when four generations of David Sloans gathered in Wayne, Pennsylvania, to fly it for a family reunion. Since then, the flag has remained carefully preserved and largely unseen.
The flag’s original owner, David Livingston Sloan (1835-1900), served in Company C of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The regiment is sometimes called the “Key West Regiment” because of its lengthy service defending Key West, Fort Taylor and the Florida coast during the Civil War. Company C served as the regiment’s Color Company, entrusted with protecting the American flag and regimental colors in battle.
After the war, David Livingston Sloan settled in Elkton, Maryland, where he became one of the founders of the Singerly Fire Co. Family records and newspaper accounts indicate that the giant flag was later carried in civic parades by firefighters, creating another connection that makes its appearance at the historic firehouse museum especially fitting.
Sloan’s aunt, Karen Sloan Flagg, undertook a detailed investigation into the flag’s origins.
Working with experts including Whitney Smith, founder of the Flag Heritage Foundation, and Grace Rogers Cooper, former curator of textiles at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of History and Technology, Flagg compared the flag’s fabric, construction techniques and design to known examples from the period.
Their findings pointed to a flag dating from approximately 1867-1876, with strong evidence that it was created for celebrations surrounding the nation’s Centennial in 1876. The unusual 13-star design reflected the country’s growing interest in honoring the original colonies during the Centennial era.
Visitors to the museum will not only see the enormous flag itself but also learn stories of the American flag and the people behind it.
“It’s one thing to read about history,” Sloan said. “It’s another thing entirely to stand in front of a flag this size and realize it’s been around since Ulysses S. Grant was president.”
With America celebrating its 250th anniversary, museum officials say the display offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to experience a remarkable artifact that connects the nation’s Centennial, Bicentennial and Semiquincentennial through a single family and a single flag.
The flag will be on display July 2-4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Alex Vega Key West Firehouse Museum, 1024 Grinnell St., Key West. Admission to the museum is free. Donations are accepted.
