The Vespiary Book Binding & Book Conservation

Today marks the reopening of the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  If you find yourself lucky enough to be in DC, check out the slate of celebratory events.  Along with the ribbon-cutting ceremony, there will be a firing of a REAL 1812 cannon, a reading of the Gettysburg Address by Gen. Colin Powell and lots of music and giveaways (i.e. if you are the 1814th visitor, you get a special unrevealed gift). They’ve even got a twitter feed of the opening events if you can’t make it, and want to experience the excitement in 180 characters or less.

I am most in interested in the revealing of the newly restored Star-Spangled Banner.  The museum has an great (and kid-friendly) interactive website detailing the history of the flag and the conservation efforts taken to ensure its integrity. Be sure to scan through the 14 or so photos of the work in progress - I call this next one “The League of Extraordinary Conservators.”

Apparently, the flag had its own lab constructed for it, and you could watch the work in progress.  This is not the first time the flag has undergone conservation treatment.  It showed up at the Smithsonian in 1907 in pretty shabby shape.  They hired Amelia Fowler, a respected flag-restorer to stabilize it.  Her work sounds daunting: sewing the flag to a linen backing with 1.7 million interlocking stitches.   Daunting to do it and probably even more so to undo it, as they did in the most recent treatment.

The interactive flag feature allows you to zoom in on parts of the flag to learn details of the flag’s history and conservation process.