When Edgar and Theresa Hyman founded Echo Scarfs on their wedding day in 1923, Theresa had one standing instruction: put the Echo name on every piece. It was a quality guarantee as much as a brand mark—a promise that what you were holding was made with care. More than a century later, that promise carries through to the fourth generation of this family-led business.

Now called Echo Design Group, their relationship with the Smithsonian began in 1976 when the Institution wanted to produce a commemorative bicentennial scarf and found the company in the phone book. Echo already had an archive of designs that mark moments in American history: During WWII, when silk was rationed and their European designers were out of reach, Edgar Hyman began creating scarves himself, such as one that spelled out what to do in the event of an air raid.

For America’s 250th anniversary, Meg Roberts, senior design director and the founders' granddaughter-in-law, has created a commemorative scarf that adds to that tradition. Meg has been designing for Echo for more than four decades, with multiple Smithsonian pieces among her work. She chose the Smithsonian Castle—the Institution's iconic redbrick building on the National Mall—as the central motif, rendered in a style that evokes vintage postcards in the National Museum of American History's collections. A Washington, DC, city map forms the background, orienting the image in place but adding a sense of timelessness. With the border design, Meg says, “I wanted to suggest that you're framing this memory, this image, this special building.”

Meg came to Echo in the 1980s as a freelance artist, and her first project with the company was a Tree of Life design that was a long-running bestseller for the Smithsonian Store. “I used to see it on the street as a young designer,” she says, “and it was the most exciting thing ever." At a recent bandana painting workshop with young artists at the Children's Museum of Manhattan, Meg encouraged them to think of a scarf as a canvas they can put absolutely anything on. “Scarves are a wonderful way of thinking about personal expression,” she says—and sometimes, the moments they mark are historic ones.

The Smithsonian Castle Semiquincentennial Commemorative Silk Scarf is available exclusively through the Smithsonian Store. Printed on pure silk and finished with a hand-rolled hem, it continues the tradition of quality that began 50 years ago when Echo said “yes” to printing that first bicentennial scarf. Whether worn, framed, or preserved as a memento, it's a piece that celebrates the Smithsonian’s role in shaping the American story.

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