by Jen Nason

Museum Textile Services had the honor of working on a large WWII flag with a magnificent history. Hanging in our studio for several months was the first Nazi flag ever captured by US forces. It was captured in Axis-occupied Casablanca, Morocco, on November 11th, 1942, and given to American General George Patton for his birthday on the same date.

Apart from the movie Casablanca we had never before heard reference to the Nazi presence in North Africa, so we decided to take a history lesson. On November 8th, 1942, an attack, named Operation Torch, was initiated in French northern Africa. It was the first time that American and British forces jointly planned an invasion together. 

There were three proposed points of attack: Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers. Each location was allocated its own task force. Casablanca was under the Western Task Force, commanded by General George Patton; Oran was under the Central Task Force, and Algiers was under the Eastern Task Force. Each task force was met by Axis resistance, however, all succeeded in capturing the important cities of French northern Africa within a few days time. The Allies claimed victory on November 18th, 1942.

The Allied victory gave them the strength and confidence to stage other invasions in Axis Sicily and Italy in 1943. It was through these campaigns that gained the Allies even more confidence and strength. With their new and improved assets, the Allies went in on to defeat the Axis powers in 1945.

It has been amazing to have such an important and daunting piece of history here at Museum Textile Services. Numerous clients, and even our UPS delivery man, received the verbal warning before entering the studio that we were working on a potentially disturbing artifact. Some were conflicted and others downright awed, but all gained a new appreciation for the complicated role a conservator plays in protecting history.

Stay tuned for the next blog about the conservation techniques we developed especially for this flag.

by Tegan Kehoe

This lovely sample of wartime-era yarn was recently donated to the Museum Textile Services study collection by Mig Ticehurst of Keswick, Cumbria, England. Ms Ticehurst emailed us about her old yarn, saying "It seems wrong to throw it away. Is it possible that it would be of interest to you?"

This pastel yarn is not just for baby clothes--any women who wanted to make “dainty garments” for themselves could afford rayon. The pattern below is probably from the 1940s or 50s-–note the milkshake glass in the woman’s hand! The pattern specifies Robin Perle, which is what’s in our little yarn stash. “Perle” describes any high-sheen, two-ply twisted yarn like this or mercerized cotton. 

The company logo on our donated yarn indicates that it was manufactured in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Bradford has been a textile hub for centuries but became a boom town early on in the Industrial Revolution, achieving prominence as the “wool capital of the world” by the mid-nineteenth century. Products included mohair, alpaca, cotton, and silk textiles. By the early twentieth century, however, Bradford’s hold on the industry had begun to slip, so some companies stayed current by producing the new synthetics.

Rayon is still being modified and produced today, and it shows up more places than you might think. Stay tuned for the next two weeks for more blogs about rayon and some other remarkable 20th-century fibers that MTS has been conserving.

At the dawn of the 19th century, a young English woman by the name of Miss Grimshaw created a self portrait out of precious silk and watercolors. In the tradition of memorial embroideries of that time period, a piece of thin silk was first painted, then backed with a stiffer cotton, and finally embroidered through both layers.  

The textile underwent quite a journey before arriving at Museum Textile Services. It was brought to America by Miss Grimshaw's son, D. Grimshaw, in 1838. This may be when the embroidery was placed in an ornate fluted frame over a wood board. Later, a paper mat with an oval cut-out was glued directly on top of the painted silk. The frame was again disturbed in the 20th century, as evidenced by some scotch tape holding the layers of board together.

Before conservation, the textile was acidified and brittle from age and contact with the wood board. The frame was weak, had been overpainted, and was losing its plaster. 

The first step was to unframe and disassemble the embroidery to get to its core components.  What we found inside was a layer of impossibly fragile silk being held together entirely by the stitching and paint.   

The silk to which the cardboard mat was glued had long since separated from the center. This allowed the mat to be lifted off, leaving behind a rough oval of silk and silk embroidery threads. Cracks were present in the painted areas and some chunks of silk had detached, revealing the cotton backing fabric.

The proposed treatment was an aggressive one; lining the back of the silk was not possible because the embroidery stitching passes through both the silk and the cotton backing fabric. Instead, a sheer conservation fabric treated with an adhesive film would have to be placed on top of the embroidery to ensure the self portrait remained intact. Adhesive treatments of this kind are not reversible, so they are used only when other treatment options are exhausted.

Before the sheer overlay went on, losses in the silk were addressed using a unique procedure.  A photograph of the intact foliage on the left side of the image was flipped horizontally in Photoshop to match the foliage on the right side of the picture. This reverse image was then printed on silk fabric using a color laser printer. (Print-on fabric is available at  http://www.dharmatrading.com). 

The new silk was placed carefully underneath the shattered edges of the textile to camouflage losses. The adhesive overlay was then completed, locking the old and new layers together. The embroidery was hand stitched to a fabric-covered archival mat board. 

A computer-cut oval mat was provided by our frame supplier and a new fluted frame was found that matches the old one almost perfectly. The textile was framed and the frame was sealed with Marvelseal barrier film. 

Now that this fragile piece of history has been stabilized and preserved, it lives on to be enjoyed by its owner, Miss Grimshaw's great-great-great-great-great granddaughter!