Smithsonian Conservation Team By LEILA ABBOUD
WASHINGTON -- Every workday for the past year, Smithsonian conservator Diane Kessler has pulled on surgical scrubs, a lab coat and canvas sneakers before carefully stepping onto a movable platform the size of a small stage that hovers three inches above the Star-Spangled Banner. She and seven other curators spend much of their day kneeling or lying on their bellies as they carefully measure, clip stitches and daub the tattered flag with cosmetic sponges to lift off the grime. The assignment is monumental: Clean 189 years of soot and battle residue from what's left of the 30-foot-by-42-foot flag and stabilize it for future display. With the expertise of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Food and Drug Administration -- along with the financial support of designer Ralph Lauren -- the Smithsonian Institution says it hopes to extend the life of this fragile symbol of America's resolve for at least 500 years. This is the flag that flew over Baltimore's Fort McHenry in September 1814 as British ships pounded the battlements and inspired Francis Scott Key, who was being detained on a nearby ship, to write the national anthem. It was extensively damaged long before the family of Fort McHenry's commander, Lt. Col. George Armistead, donated it to the Smithsonian in 1907. The 50-pound flag is less than a sharp rectangle, the result of gravity's effects as it flew over the fort. Constant exposure to light, temperature changes and humidity has weakened the fabric. The Armistead family shortened the flag significantly -- and cut out one of the original 15 stars -- by following the day's custom of clipping swatches as mementos. Simply finding a place to work on the massive flag has been difficult, as it was back in 1813 for its maker. When Mary Pickersgill, a professional flagmaker in Baltimore, stitched the flag, she had to borrow the malt house of a nearby brewery where she could lay out the cloth on the floor. Today, the conservators work in a $1.2 million laboratory, custom-made for the flag project, within the National Museum of American History. The flag is stored on a wooden cylinder and rolled out on an aluminum tabletop similar to those used for outdoor concert stages.
A large window lines one side of the lab so visitors to the Smithsonian can watch the conservators work. The environment is controlled to maintain positive pressure, preventing harmful dust, fibers, or humidity from entering the room. Even the air is scrubbed with charcoal filters. At all times, the relative humidity in the room is maintained at 50% and the temperature at 70 degrees, optimal conditions. Like doctors preparing for surgery, the team of conservators must pass through a staged entry: They leave the support lab, with computers and microscopes, and enter a clean room, where they change into scrubs before entering the flag room. They work on a rolling platform, called a gantry, made of 5,300 pounds of diamond-cut stainless steel that resists bending or bowing. It is lined with thin white mattresses for their comfort. Chief conservator Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss likens the slow, arduous work to "exercising in a gym or running a marathon." Because of the danger of repetitive stress injuries, the conservators follow a strict regimen of rotations and mandatory rest breaks. They usually spend 40 to 50 minutes on a particular task, then rest for 15 minutes. Conservators borrowed the expertise of NASA scientists, whose infrared camera, developed to study Mars, identified soiled and damaged areas of the flag invisible to the eye. Wool specialists from the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service analyzed the fabric. During the first phase of the project, conservators used surgical forceps and dissecting scissors to remove 1.7 million stitches that fixed a linen backing onto the flag. Added by a previous generation of Smithsonian conservators in 1914, the backing was to support and stretch the tattered flag into a rectangular shape. But the linen "began to compete with the wool" and needed to be removed, says Ms. Thomassen-Krauss. The conservators literally followed in the stitches of the previous generation of conservators. They even found a needle forgotten in the fabric. Next, the flag was turned over, and for the next two years conservators gingerly peeled the linen off the flag. "We didn't know if the linen would tear or turn to dust," said Ms. Thomassen-Krauss. When the last scrap was finally removed last month, the flag's true fragility was evident. It is too tender to hang again, conservators say, and may be displayed on a flat surface at a 30-degree angle in the museum when the conservation is finished next year. The conservators also are removing soot accumulated over the 38 years the flag hung in the Smithsonian's main hall, where it was exposed to minute amounts of car exhaust that seeped in every time one of the museum's four million annual visitors opened the doors. They used cosmetic sponges to blot off the carbon residue because using water or solvent would have damaged the flag. Conservators will also blot off battle residue left from British ordnance during the battle at Fort McHenry. The sulfur and nitrogen from the ordnance combines with water in the air to form the sulfuric acid that is slowly eating away at the flag's cotton stars. Mr. Lauren provided $13 million for the project. Other donors include the Pew Charitable Trust and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. When the final tally is taken, Ms. Thomassen-Krauss figures it will cost $18 million. When the U.S. Army purchased the flag, it paid Mary Pickersgill $405.90. Write to Leila Abboud at leila.abboud@wsj.com2
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