A Ghost of the Civil War

This blog concludes our four-part series on the Solon A Perkins flag, cared for by the Greater Lowell Veteran's Council, here in Massachusetts. It took nearly 18 months for the Vets to administer this complicated project, including hiring Museum Textile Services to conserve the flag and MasterWorks Conservation to conserve the frame. The flag will be rededicated on May 31, 2015, in a public ceremony at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

The Solon A. Perkins flag before conservation.

At the outset of the project, a major decision was made by representatives of the Veteran's Council to use ghost images to restore the original shape and design of the flag. The tips of the swallow-tail guidon were missing, possibly taken by souvenir hunters (a frequent practice.) The shattered white and blue silks were actively disintegrating and not all of the gold-painted stars had survived the century-old framing campaign. Matters were complicated by the presence of glue beneath many of the stars and at other key points.

Using a combination of heat, solvent, and mechanical action, Camille lifted each glued section and painstakingly removed the cardboard residue beneath. This process sometimes caused the gold-painted stars to break into two or more pieces. So Camille combined archival adhesive, gold powder pigment, and acrylic paint, and brushed the mixture onto sheer polyester fabric. When dry, she cut out star shapes using a stencil made from one of the flag's stars. As she liberated each star from the board, she lightly stuck the star pieces to a new star form using a tacking iron.

To facilitate removal, the support board was cut and the canton separated from the stripes along pre-existing breaks in the silk.

The canton after removal from the old board (l) and after conservation (r).

The Greater Lowell Veterans Council opted to have Camille leave the full ghost stars rather than cutting away any uncovered portions of the star shapes. These ghost images now suggest the original appearance of the concentric Civil War star arrangement but are different enough in color and sheen as to be an obvious restoration. To compensate for missing areas, Camille also fashioned polyester organza underlays for beneath the red, white, and blue silks. 

A solid-support panel was manufactured by Small Corp. Inc. to fit perfectly into the flag's inner frame. We covered the panel with padding and fabric before laying out the red and white polyester organza
underlays. Camille then placed the striped section of the flag on top of this ghost image and hand stitched them both to the fabric-covered panel. Next, she transferred the canton, already stitched to its blue organza underlay, onto the panel and stitched it into place. The final step prior to framing was to tediously straighten all of the shattered silk and slowly cover the entire flag with silk Crepeline. Camille hand stitched around the perimeter of flag and beneath each white stripe to hold the tattered flag in place and to prevent any fragments from slipping down. This sheer overlay is invisible from even a short distance and provides a extra barrier between the flag and the acrylic above.

Camille Myers Breeze straightening out the shattered flag.

Sheer silk Crepeline being slowly rolled out over the flag prior to framing.

The pressure mount was created by placing a sheet of UV-filtering acrylic over the mounted flag and screwing it down into the top of the panel. Because the rabbet of the green inner frame does not fully cover these mounting screws, we used an archival linen-covered mat between the underside of the frame and the top of the acrylic to mask the holes. Although the reinstalled flag looks as if it is a single framing system, this is an illusion; the flag panel, followed by the frames, were installed separately into the marble wall of the Lowell Memorial Auditorium and won't be going anywhere for a long time.

The Perkins Civil War flag, conserved by Museum Textile Services, and the c 1900 frame conserved by MasterWorks Conservation. Photo by John Mitchell.

Museum Textile Services would like to thank the members of the Greater Lowell Veteran's Council, especially John Mitchell, Bob Casper, and Thayer Eastman; Grant Welker, staff reporter from the Lowell Sun; and Larry Glickman of Traveling Framers. To contribute to the ongoing fundraising efforts for this project, please visit the Lt. Perkins Flag Restoration GoFundMe page.

Camille Myers Breeze founded Museum Textile services in 1999. She is a prolific author, and educator of museum personnel and emerging conservation professionals in the US and abroad.