This piece of sheet music bearing the words and music of "The Star Spangled Banner" will be auctioned on Dec. 3. In the 1800s, it was owned by Mary Barnitz of York County, Pa.

Fascinating facts about Francis Scott Key, the writing of what would become America's national anthem, and the War of 1812 battle flag that inspired it all.

Oh Say Can You See …half a million dollars? A rare first edition of the sheet music for “The Star-Spangled Banner” sold for $506,500 at Christie’s Auction House in New York Friday ...

After witnessing a crucial episode of the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that, set to the melody of an 18th-century English drinking song, captured the patriotic picture of the American ...

Lester S. Levy bagged his first-edition copy of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1940 for $170, appreciably less than an anonymous buyer plunked down — $506,5000 — 70 years later on Dec. 3 at ...

It sounds like they were keeping with the tradition of parody that was the basis of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” And the melody actually comes from a British song – how did that happen?