PORTLAND – Fragments of the very flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the national anthem will be on display in Washington after years in the collection of the Maine Historical Society.

Beginning Thursday – Flag Day – the five fragments from Maine will be displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

The Smithsonian, which has an $18 million project to preserve the flag, has assembled fragments from five museums across the country. The exhibit runs through November.

Key wrote the poem that became the national anthem when he saw the flag flying after the 25-hour British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812.

The fragments from the Maine Historical Society were intentionally cut from the flag as mementos. The family of George Henry Preble, who wrote a history of the U.S. flag, gave the fragments to the Society in 1909.

“I am so excited about having pieces from the Maine Historical Society in our exhibit,” said Marilyn Zoidis, curator of the Smithsonian’s Star-Spangled Banner Project.

Zoidis said researchers had learned that there were a few threads from the flag at the Society, “But there were more than a few threads. There were five pieces,” she said.

And the pieces are good – red, white and blue pieces, and one with both red and blue.

Joyce Butler, the curator of the Maine Historical Society, said she was glad to send the fragments, which she did via Federal Express – specially packaged and insured for $6,000.

“One of the perks for us is that they have conserved our fragments, which are fairly large,” Butler said, explaining that one is 3 inches square.

When the Smithsonian exhibit ends, the fragments will be returned to Maine and placed back into storage.