An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia - Conservation - Virginia Historical Society

Conservation

Above: VHS Registrar Rebecca Rose and Textile Preservation Associates conservator Cathy Heffner are pictured with the "Dinwiddie" flag.
Read a blog about the flag conservation project by Rebecca Rose:
• I STILL have not seen a Mexican War Flag! (9.20.10)

VHS Chief of Conservation Stacy Rusch examines a drawing by Theodore Davis titled "Union Troops Burning out the Shenandoah Valley." (Virginia Historical Society, Accession no. 1991.76)

Stacy Rusch is holding "General Orders No. 9," signed by Robert E. Lee.

Stacy Rusch and VHS Senior Conservation Technician Libby Anderson examine Gaieties and Gravities (New York, 1852) by Horace Smith. (Virginia Historical Society, Call no. Rare Z986 .G73)

A number of VHS collections to be featured in the exhibition will undergo conservation treatment. Among these items are several Civil War flags.

In October 2008, the Virginia Historical Society received a grant from The Cecil R. and Edna S. Hopkins Family Foundation to underwrite the conservation treatment of the Petersburg City Guard flag for the Sesquicentennial exhibition. These are the four flags being conserved for the exhibition:

Petersburg City Guard, First National pattern flag with a Virginia state seal on one side and 13 stars on the other side
A First National pattern flag, adorned with 8 stars, that was made when Virginia seceded
An Army of Northern Virginia pattern battle flag attributed to the May 1864 battles at Spotsylvania, Virginia
A Virginia state flag presented by the Ladies of Dinwiddie County, Virginia

Chosen from among the flags in the VHS collection was the fragile silk Virginia State flag which has a painted seal on both sides, presented by the ladies of Dinwiddie County. This flag has been framed between two pieces of glass since the late 1940s and will be unframed and further evaluated for painting conservation and framing for exhibition (pictured right).

In February 2009, the VHS took three flags—the "Dinwiddie" flag, the "Petersburg" flag, and the First National pattern—to Textile Preservation Associates to begin treatment on two and further evaluate the painted silk flags with a painting conservator. In March 2010, the VHS will pick up two of the flags whose conservation treatment is complete and deliver the last flag to be conserved.

The last two flags will be conserved and returned to the VHS by the end of the Fall 2010.

Read a blog about the flag conservation project by VHS Registrar Rebecca Rose:

• I STILL have not seen a Mexican War Flag! (9.20.10)