ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 23, 1996 TAG: 9611250159
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: EUNICE MOSCOSO COX NEWS SERVICE
A few feet from the flag known as the Star Spangled Banner, the 240-pound brass bob of the Foucault pendulum swings from the ceiling of the National Museum of American History - precisely counting the hours that are slowly destroying its neighbor.
``Time is its enemy,'' Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss, the museum's senior textile conservator, said of the withered flag that inspired the author of the National Anthem.
``It's an enormous piece of fabric,'' and organic materials naturally deteriorate as they age, she said.
Thomassen-Krauss joined about 50 U.S. and Canadian scientists and scholars Friday at a two-day seminar to discuss how to best preserve the 30-by-34-foot, 300-pound historic icon for viewing by future generations.
Museum director Spencer Crew said the project will surely cost millions of dollars and might be finished by 2000.
The flag, hand-sewn by Mary Pickersgill of Baltimore from English wool bunting and cotton stars, flew above Maryland's Fort McHenry on Sept. 13, 1813, when Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key was detained aboard an American truce ship on Chesapeake Bay.
That night, a British fleet bombarded the fort, which guarded the approach to Baltimore by sea. When dawn broke, Key saw the flag flying over the fort as proof the Americans had withstood the attack.
Inspired by the sight, he wrote a few lines, later published as a poem, ``The Defence of Fort McHenry.''
Set to the tune of a well-known English song, Key's verse became popular, and in 1931, an act of Congress declared ``The Star Spangled Banner'' the national anthem.
The flag was given to Fort McHenry's commander, Maj. George Armistead, stayed in his family through the 1800s, and was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1912.
In 1914, a team of expert needlewomen removed an old canvas backing and hand-stitched a new one of Irish linen, which still serves as the flag's support and accounts for half its weight.
Preservation of the banner has been a constant priority, according to museum officials who sponsored the seminar.
Bryan Blundell, who conducted a recent year-long study of the flag's environment, described to Friday's audience of experts the slight fluctuations of temperature and humidity he found at six monitoring points behind the flag and one in front of it.
The consulting scholars will study this data and debate how to minimize effects of lighting and heating systems, and how to clean and remove harmful residues and soils from the fabric.
Asked if the preservation process means the flag will be removed from its prime viewing spot near the museum's main entrance, Crew said efforts would be made to keep the flag on display, but sometimes ``short-term sacrifices'' must be made to ensure long-term preservation.
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