Oh say, you can see the flag that inspired the US national anthem undergo a high-tech restoration during the next three years.
Within the next month, the Smithsonian Institution will draw the curtain on a lab constructed specifically for the conservation of the historic Star-Spangled Banner.
In one of the largest textile-conservation projects in history -- and yet another example of museums using new technologies to preserve the past -- conservators will use an infrared camera originally developed to explore Mars.
Visitors to the Smithsonian will be able to view the progress of the painstaking project through heavy-duty, floor-to-ceiling glass. On the other side of the tempered glass, computers will create a controlled environment that will be, above all else, squeaky clean for 36 months.
"The lab needs to stay a clean room, similar to the rooms used to keep large, mainframe computers," said Smithsonian spokeswoman Melinda Machado. Besides controlling air pressure and airflow to prevent dust, computers will control light levels and humidity. Conservators will also use a computerized color-matching meter.
The flag's first preservation treatment was in 1914, when the museum hired a seamstress to sew on a linen backing.
"Needles and sewing [were] the technology used back then," Machado said. "In 1999, it will be science."
Considered a national treasure, the flag flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to write the patriotic -- and defiant -- words that would become the national anthem.
The three-story, 150-pound flag has been on display almost continuously since coming to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 1907. It was viewed by an estimated 4.2 million people last year.
Despite receiving the best possible care at the museum's Flag Hall, the timeworn banner has deteriorated from exposure to light, air pollution, and temperature fluctuation. Last year, the museum began devising a plan to clean up the banner's 15 stars and 15 stripes (the formation used before the nation switched to 13 stripes).
"Our goal here is to stabilize this flag, not to make it look new," said senior conservator Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss. She is getting help from NASA's Acousto-Optic Imaging Spectrometer, an infrared camera developed to help future robotic Mars landing vehicles determine the mineral composition of Martian rocks.
The camera took images of the historic flag late last year so that preservationists could identify deteriorated and soiled areas not obvious to the human eye.
"It gives me a feeling of great pride that a camera we developed to explore other planets is now exploring this historic artifact," said John Hillman, NASA's representative on the Smithsonian team. "The flag has never been viewed this way before."
Using a computer, the NASA team has pieced together 72 separate images to create a mosaic of the massive flag. Each image took about 25 minutes to make and is composed of 200 infrared colors.
Contaminants found on the surface of the wool reflect infrared light differently than wool itself, Hillman said.
Hillman said that with the images, "we can identify where these differences are located on the flag. We are looking for things that can't be seen easily, or at all, with the human eye, such as moisture and oils."
Moisture is of particular concern to conservators. In the presence of light, moisture causes a chemical reaction that deteriorates wool.
The flag has been removed from its display and carefully rolled into what the Smithsonian jokingly called the "world's largest paper-towel tube." It was then crated and moved to the second-floor conservation lab, where it will be gradually unrolled onto an aluminum-and-plastic table.
Conservators wearing surgical gloves and binocular magnifiers will use an adjustable bridge spanning the length of the banner to access its center. Wet and dry solvents will remove dirt. Each strand of silk thread will be dyed to match the flag's colors.
After the preservation, the Star-Spangled Banner will be returned to a newly renovated Flag Hall. The NASA camera, meanwhile, might return to space. Replicas of the camera will also explore more of the invisible world on Earth. Georgetown University Medical Center plans to use the technology in skin-cancer research, while the University of Arizona wants to use it to analyze prehistoric sites.
In addition, Hillman may apply the camera in his personal efforts as a copyist at the National Gallery of Art. A copyist's duties involve making detailed reproductions of classic art to gain insight into the artist's technique and thoughts.
The infrared camera could offer "a deeper understanding of a painting by revealing the underdrawing, which shows what the artist had in mind before applying the brush," Hillman said. "Another potential application for this camera is to determine the pigment used in the paint, which can distinguish an authentic piece from a forgery."
