At the western end of M St. overlooking the Potomac River is a small park that’s well-traveled by locals and Georgetown University students, but under-visited by the tourists that come to the District. Many know the name of Francis Scott Key, but few know the story behind the man or his memorial.
For over 100 years the District of Columbia went without an official flag. Before the flag we know today was approved in 1938, the District would often fly the flag of the D.C. militia, which shows the Capitol Dome with a rising sun behind it. But in 1917 a young designer and artist named Charles Dunn was working on engraving a number of flags for an issue of National Geographic. “While working on the flags of the different states of the United States, I became aware of a lack of good design in many of them. In fact, some were simply just the state seal in the center of a blue field. Of course, I noticed, too, that there was no District of Columbia Flag.”
