By Kaitlyn Munro
If you missed the first part of this two-part series, click here to read that post.
Our introduction to Mrs. Shawbaker’s flag began with an initial assessment in 2020. It was mounted and framed in the 1980’s. The flag was puckered, distorted and wrinkled, with hundreds of disfiguring and damaging stitches done with thick nylon thread. Working closely with City Hall and the Frederick Art Commission, we all agreed that it was time for a preservation overhaul.
The conservation work began in earnest in 2021 and would take eight dedicated months with five professional partners, to complete. Once the unframed flag was in the conservation studio, our first step was to carefully clip and remove all the nylon thread stitches and delicately and gingerly detach it from its heavy cotton lining. The process was painstaking and laborious, but what emerged was the soft and supple wool bunting.
Gallery below: Summer intern Peyton Bramble and Julia carefully remove nylon threads.
Now we could access the front and back in order to carefully surface clean, humidify, press, and weight the flag to reduce creasing.
Previously, the flag was stitched onto an ice-white lining and the holes and losses screamed out. The damages and losses still required extra support so a new lining was in order. This presented an opportunity to explore other fabric options. When it comes to color and opacity, the decision is truly aesthetic and must ultimately be decided by the stakeholders. Alison Cain and Donna Rosano, members of the Frederick Public Art Commission came to the studio to guide this important decision. From our carefully pre-selected conservation options, they chose semi-sheer fabrics that don’t fully disguise or hide the holes, but allow the viewer to understand and see the flag ‘whole’.
The next big step was individually lining each stripe. Since the fine old wool was wiggly and dimensionally varied, the lining fabric was pinned in place and carefully cut to ensure a precise alignment of the two fabrics.
Next, the canton—a piece of very fragile fragmentary blue cotton with 34 heavily painted stars. The stars were all badly damaged, with large disfiguring chunks of stars missing, thousands of puncture holes from the previous nylon cord stitching, and torn and split cotton ground cloth. We may know a thing or two when it comes to textiles, but we need to collaborate with other conservators when working on textiles with mixed media. Nancy Pollak, an expert in painted textiles, spent time with us to give the stars their due attention. Nancy is a Frederick resident so it was exciting for us to have a community member work on the flag in such a direct capacity!
Remember, our approach was to make the flag look ‘whole’ but not restored or new. Therefore, the treatment of the stars was discrete; filling in strategic areas of loss and stabilizing all the flaking, falling paint. We found commonality here with our colleague: painting conservators use textiles as a treatment material too! In order to align and stabilize the stars, Nancy mended the back of each break with adhesive supports of very fine polyester fabric called Stabilitex (We’ve used this in previous projects, too.)
The stars with huge chunks missing were visually distracting. These were elegantly filled with adhesive-coated polyester chiffon in shades that blended with the star’s variegated coloring.
With the stars stabilized, the blue canton was safely lined with custom-dyed cotton voile hand stitched in place. The final treatment step was to secure all the tears, splits, frayed and unraveling edges, and myriad holes throughout the whole flag. This was done using various stitches and stitching techniques, all going through to the new lining for dimensional support.
And with that, conservation treatment was complete! The flag was now stable enough to be re-mounted and framed. The mounting of the freshly conserved flag was done by hand stitching it to a padded fabric-covered archival mount; each stripe, all edges, delicately but firmly stitch tacked in place. Archival Arts Services in Alexandria, Virginia (who we highly recommend!) collaborated with the Frederick Art Commissioners to select an elegant new gilded and lacquered frame, and UV protective Plexiglas.
On November 16, 2021, we all gathered excitedly in City Hall for reinstallation day. We do not always get the opportunity to take part in a dramatic installation. So often our completed treatments leave the studio and we never see our hard work and handwork in person.
Oh, say does Mrs. Shawbaker’s “star-spangled banner” yet wave! It was an incredible honor to work on this flag and preserve Mrs. Shawbaker’s American legacy. These “broad stripes and bright stars” are shining once again!
If you ever find yourself in Frederick, Maryland, be sure to stop by City hall and visit the flag.
UPDATE: We were proud to have this project featured in the February 23, 2022, Frederick News Post. You can read that article online here.
If only Mrs Shawbaker could see what loving attention her handiwork has received and the painstaking effort to preserve it! ?
Julia, Great work!! So nice you got to work with Nancy P, too!!
What a careful and wonderful job you all did on this project. I have lately thought about what legacy does a person leave behind. All these years later, Mrs. Shawbaker’s legacy lives on. Her community is blessed!
What a fascinating project this was, and how delightful it was to work with Julia and her team. I was so impressed by the interest in Mrs. Shawbaker herself, and the loving care taken with her creation. ??????