The United States’ independence “ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other.”
–John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, 1776
Flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814, photographed in 1873 in the Boston Navy Yard by George Henry Preble
Harper’s Weekly – July 7 1894 (4th celebrations in New York)