Visitors at the official re-opening of the National Museum of American History
© AFP Nicholas Kamm

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush attended a ceremony on Wednesday to formally announce it was opening its doors again, highlighting the museum center-piece cloth flag that inspired the US national anthem.

The flag dates from the Anglo-American War of 1812-1815 and flew over a Fort McHenry under fire, inspiring Francis Scott Key, held within view on a ship at the port of Baltimore, to write:

"O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?"

"Nearly two centuries after they were composed, his words are written on the heart of every American -- and written into our law as our country's national anthem," Bush said.

"And the flag that inspired them is preserved here, thanks to the generosity of some fine citizens, to remind us of the sacrifices that have been made to ensure our freedom."

The US president joked that "the items on display here are as diverse as our nation.

"Visitors can see George Washington's military uniform, one of Thomas Edison's early lightbulbs, the desk on which Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence -- even Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, which he modestly predicted would become the most famous thing in this building."

©AFP