9781422287545

ugust is always hot in Boston, but in 1892, the sum- mer sun seemed especially intense. The heat added to the pressure Francis Bellamy and James Upham were facing. So much work had already been done. Bellamy and Upham were colleagues at the popular magazine The Youth’s Companion, which was based in Massachusetts. They had spent months organizing the National School Celebration for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World. They had President Benjamin Harrison’s support, they had planned the raising of the flag by veterans and they had prepared an address on “The Meaning of Four Centuries.” The one task that remained was to write a “salute to the flag.” 1 “Come and Hear What I’ve Got!” In 1892, this building at 142 Berkeley Street in Boston housed offices of The Youth’s Companion , a popular magazine of the time. It was here that a writer for the magazine named Francis Bellamy wrote a “salute to the flag.” The short article he wrote has become known to students throughout the United States, as the basis for our Pledge of Allegiance.

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