REGIMENTAL COLORS - HISTORICAL RESEARCH (2)

Historical Research 1 2 3 4 5 Placing flag in storage shelving	Civil War Flags, especially the Federal National colors, will often be found in such poor condition that inspection and transfer is a tricky sort of affair. Dyes, bleaches and treatment of the silk fabric at the time of manufacture in the 1860's has resulted in some flags that are literally dissolved or appear as a pile of silk chips when layed out. In some cases, only fragments of the flag remain. The surviving remnants are simply a canvas sleeve liner with small strands of silk attached and that is it. Veterans of these regiments, in some cases, took pieces home with them at the end of the war or at various reunions in the following years. Some are surprisingly intact and some show the effext of shot and shell. To transfer such historic peices, one needs to plan ahead and be sure of every step along the way. Great care was taken to do this transfer surgically and in the case of the Minnesota collection, was accomplished over the period of one day. Each flag was nestled into its new home and catalogued, checked and double checked with existing records and matched with its cord and tassels if they existed. Click on image to enlarge.
The preservation technique used for the collection back in the 1960's, when these flags were last transferred, was to stabilize them with a synthetic mesh that is literally sewn with thousands of small holes into the very fabric and paint of the flag. This technique, while cutting edge at that time, is problematic in 2005 because it "damaged the flag to save it" in a way and it is not readily reversable without great cost. The flags we transferred on this day had all been treated in this way.

Historical Research 1 2 3 4 5