The Star-Spangled Banner

It was with the same respect for the story told by the wear and tear on the flag that conservators at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History approached the preservation of one of America’s most cherished scraps of fabric: the Star-Spangled Banner. You can’t see the hard work, but nearly a decade of effort went into preserving its famously tattered state, immortalized by Francis Scott Key in the song that gave the flag its nickname. And according to Jim Gardner, the museum’s former associate director for curatorial affairs, that’s the point. “Our goal was not to restore the flag but to preserve it for generations to come,” he says.

In 1998, the flag was taken down from the wall where it had hung since 1964. A lengthy evaluation process involving 50 international experts—conservators, curators, historians, engineers, and organic scientists—helped determine how best to proceed. Technicians began by clipping 1.7 million stitches to remove the linen backing that had been sewn on in 1914. Next, debris was removed with the aid of cosmetic sponges, and the surface was bathed in a mixture of water and acetone to clear away harmful residues. Finally, a new backing, made from a silklike fabric called Stabiltex, was sewn on. The end result has been viewed by millions of visitors to the museum since 1999.

The invisible accommodations, however, tell only half the story. Another aim of the new, permanent display, says Brodie, is to present the flag within its historical context. In September 1814, he says, the United States was “a fledgling nation, struggling for its own economy, struggling to establish itself in a Europe-dominated world. The British had just burned the White House and the Library of Congress, sacked [Washington, DC], and left for Baltimore, where they met with great and fierce resistance.” The exhibition’s introduction explains the perils of the times through historical weapons, such as bombs and rockets, and a piece of charred White House timber. But the main attraction receives a decidedly subtler treatment. A long corridor allows visitors’ eyes to gradually adjust to the darkness before the flag, displayed horizontally in a glass case, materializes as if seen by “dawn’s early light.”

Gardner says, “The goal is to have everything else disappear in that room and just have the flag there, glowing, with [Key’s] verse.” If that sounds dramatic, well, it’s meant to be: When Key penned his anthem, “the fate of the new nation was at stake, and that flag represented a critical moment in the nation’s history,” says Gardner. “You could say that the American Revolution achieved independence, but 1814 was when it was secured for the future.”