The Star-Spangled Banner: Preserving an American icon

Last November, the National Museum of American History reopened its doors after a two-year, $85 million renovation. As they re-envisioned the museum’s interior, the Smithsonian’s design teams created new, innovative ways to present the objects of our nation’s past. And at the heart of that dramatic transformation is the new state-of-the-art gallery for the Star-Spangled Banner.
 

Since it first inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the words of our national anthem in 1814, the Star-Spangled Banner has endured as a national treasure. Through the years, the flag has drawn visitors to its home at the National Museum of American History. However, with such an aged and fragile artifact, that popularity can sometimes be a problem. 

“When working on icons at the Smithsonian—the ones that everyone wants to see when they come to the museum, it becomes very hard to keep them on permanent exhibition without having it damaged,” says Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss, the museum’s senior textile conservator and chief conservator for the Star-Spangled Banner preservation project. Fortunately, she says, the Star-Spangled Banner turned out to be “one of our great successes.”

In 1994, Smithsonian experts and researchers determined that the iconic flag and its support materials had deteriorated to the point that a major preservation project was necessary. Thomassen-Krauss and her team were charged with the tasks of cleaning the flag as well as finding ways to extend the life of the flag and the museum’s ability to exhibit it. And so in May of 1999, a seven-year preservation process began—in full view of museum visitors.

“Our main concern was that you’re working with 1,000 square feet of fabric that more closely resembles dried leaves than fabric,” says Thomassen-Krauss, adding that quality control was a major issue as well. With such a large area to cover, a team of four to eight textile experts would diligently snip, stitch and clean a work space of only eight inches at a time. “It all has to look the same in the end,” she says. “And sometimes, the big excitement was when you got to work on blue instead of red for the day.”

Upon the completion of the Star-Spangled Banner’s preservation process, a team of experts in exhibition design developed a gallery that simultaneously offers visitors a dramatic viewing of the national treasure while also protecting the fragile fabric from potentially harsh conditions. For example, the exhibition hall’s dark environment protects the flag from light exposure, and the support materials hold the flag at a 10-degree angle to minimize stress on the fabric.
 
A 20-year veteran of the Smithsonian staff, Thomassen-Krauss maintains that the Star-Spangled Banner preservation project will remain one of her career’s most memorable. “It was always interesting. It was always challenging. And it was so satisfying,” she says, remembering moments when the conservation work genuinely connected with visitors. At one point, an elderly visitor stopped to salute the women who were working on the flag. On another day, a group of eighth-grade girls spontaneously sang the national anthem while viewing the preservation process.

“It was an opportunity to show the public what conservation is all about,” says Thomassen-Krauss, “and what conservation means to their own history.”

To learn more about the Star-Spangled Banner preservation project, go to americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner.