O! Say Can You See. In this post, we will see more from our tour of the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House in Baltimore. Flag maker Mary Pickersgill and a team of eight other women, including indentured servants, took just six weeks to sew the mammoth flag that survived the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, inspiring attorney Francis Scott Key to pen a poem that would become our national anthem.

We found a way to make the War of 1812 celebration a little nerdy with an excursion to the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, home of flag maker Mary Pickersgill, whose mother was a flag-making “rival” of Betsy Ross when both lived in Philadelphia.

As we celebrate our nation’s birthday, here are some facts about July 4th and our only president born on this day – Calvin Coolidge.

When I told my friends about starting a blog chronicling my “Nerd Trips” to sites associated with U.S. presidents, my college roommate Susan had an immediate and strong reaction, “That’s sexist!” Actually, I don’t think I can be held responsible for the fact that the United States has not had any female presidents. However, in celebration of Women’s History Month, I decided to tackle this topic: Are Nerd Trips sexist?

Who is the man immortalized in this statue on Baltimore’s Mount Vernon square? I see this statue often, so I wondered: just who is Severn Teackle Wallis?

I had never heard of Paul Jennings until we encountered him on a Nerd Trip to Montpelier, home to our fourth president James Madison. Jennings was a slave who served as Madison’s personal assistant during the White House years and afterward. Jennings is a fascinating witness to history, writing the first White House memoir, called “A Colored Man’s Reminiscence of James Madison,” published in 1865. I bought a copy at the Montpelier gift shop.