Old Glory

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), who 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. After the war, Driver's daughter and niece feuded over which of them owned the original Old Glory. In 1922, both flags claimed to be the original "Old Glory" became part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, where they remain at the National Museum of American History.

The term originally referred to an American flag owned by Driver, who was born on March 17, 1803, in Salem, Massachusetts. At age thirteen, Driver ran way from home to become a cabin boy on a ship.

At age twenty-one, 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 a group of young Salem female admirers" sewed the flag and gave it to him as a gift in 1824. With this flag flying over his ship, Driver went on to have a colorful career as an American merchant seaman, sailing to China, India, Gibraltar, and the South Pacific. He participated in the tortoiseshell trade and knew some Fijian. In 1831, while voyaging in the South Pacific, Driver's ship "was the sole surviving vessel of six that departed Salem the same day." Driver subsequently picked up 65 descendants of the survivors of the HMS Bounty and brought them back to Pitcairn Island; Driver "is said to have been convinced that God saved his ship for that purpose."

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