S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S
JULY 1 2009
AMERICANWAY 25
since 1873, when theflaghung from awin-
dow at theBostonNavyYard andwas pho-
tographed for thefirst time.
The flag’s display chamber is a marvel
in preservation precautions. The long cor-
ridor leading to the exhibit hall gets pro-
gressivelydarker so visitors’ eyes can adjust
to the two-story room’s dim light, which is
providedbya singleprojected slide. Instead
of a single point of light, which can cause
hot spots and shadows, the projected slide
is a patchwork of several hundred pixels in
different shades of gray. The resulting light
is equivalent to that of a candle being held
at adistance of one foot. The sealeddisplay
case is kept at between 68 and 72 degrees
Fahrenheit and at between 50 and 70 per-
cent humidity, conditions that allow the
fragile fibers to remainflexible in case con-
servators should ever need to roll the flag
up. The oxygen level is kept at 15 percent,
whichservesbothasafire-safetyprecaution
and hopefully, as a preservation technique,
slowingdeterioration. The flag is tilted at a
slight angle so that visitors can adequately
see it and so that the integrity of the fabric
isnot compromised.
Whatmuseumgoers seenow— the result
of eight years of meticulous work— is the
perfect balance of preservation andpresen-
tation. “
[
The flag
]
is resting — not under
stress, not subject to things that can cause
damage,” Thomassen-Krauss says. “But it’s
still wonderfully accessible to anyone who
wants to see it.”
The eight-year process has been an
often-emotional experience forThomassen-
Krauss, who first pondered the problem of
preserving the Star-Spangled Banner as
a graduate student in 1978 after hearing a
lecture fromaSmithsonianconservator.She
knows the work she’s done means a great
deal tomany people. The day after the ex-
hibitopened, shewalked intothegalleryand
found a youngwoman crying. Thewoman’s
grandmother had once worked at the mu-
seum and had told her about the ongoing
conundrumofwhat todowith theflag.
“She said that her grandmotherwouldbe
so happy now,” Thomassen-Krauss recalls.
“You realizeyou’reneverdoing this foryour-
self. You’redoing it for everybodyelse.”
humidity level at 50 percent, since mold
can form at humidity levels higher than60
percent andfibers get brittle at levels lower
than50percent. After careful examination,
Thomassen-Krauss and her team deter-
mined that the flagwould never be able to
fly again; it was simply too fragile. The lab
featured a glass wall, which gave visitors
the opportunity to watch the conservation
work in progress andweigh in on themat-
ter. “People told us they didn’t mind that
the flag looked old and damaged. They ex-
pected it to,”Thomassen-Krauss says. “That
helped us with the idea of not
restoring
it
but preservingand conserving it.”
The next step was to stabilize the cloth.
For six hours a day over the span of 10
months, conservators snipped away ap-
proximately1.7millionstitchesthatheldthe
worn, fragmented flag to a linen backing,
whichhad been sewn on byAmelia Fowler
in 1914 during the Smithsonian’s first ma-
jor flag-preservation effort. It took another
eightmonths to then turn theflagover and
painstakingly pull the clipped stitches and
soiled linen from it. As the team worked,
they discovered 37 patches that had been
used to repair pieces of the flag that had
likely been torn away inhighwinds. “Flags
have a hard life. Damage happens relative-
ly quickly,” says Thomassen-Krauss, who
notes that when the Smithsonian acquired
the flag in 1907, it had already been worn
down from itsoriginal sizeof 30-by-42 feet
to 30-by-34 feet. Conservators left all of
the patches in place, but more than 60 re-
pairsandmendingswereremoved torelieve
stress on the brittle fabric and restore the
flag’s shape.
After the team removed the backing,
they began cleaning debris from the flag.
First, they dabbeddry cosmetic sponges on
its surface, working their way inch by inch
across the 1,020 square feet ofmaterial, all
while lying stomach-down on a platform
that hovered inches above the fabric. Next,
they used a solution of water and acetone
to remove surface deposits of oils. The flag
was then sewn to a sheer high-tech polyes-
ter material called Stabiltex to give it sup-
port. Finally, the side of the flag that had
been on display for decades was attached
to a custom-made laminate underlay tra-
ditionally used for racing-yacht sails; what
visitors view now in the gallery is a side of
theflag thathadnotbeen seenby thepublic
JIMMoRRIsoN
first wrote about the Star-Spangled Banner
preservation in2000. His storieshaveappeared in the
NewYork
Times
,
Smithsonian
,
Reader’s Digest
, the
Wall Street Journal
,
and other publications.
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