Minnesota's flag conservator from the 1960's used a method not too dissimilar to Amelia Fowler's method of creating a network of stitches that secured the flag to an opaque linen background. The 1960's version was to use a transparent fabric on both sides, but while the stitches through the silk and oil painting of the flag, like Fowler's method, may have damaged the flag further, those crude methods may have given us the luxury of having a damaged flag to complain about.

I am reminded of the sad notes I saw in the US Naval Academy Museum's archive of historic flags: card after card had the note "destroyed by carpet beetles." Conservation science has come a long way.

By the way, the Massachusetts State Library in the basement of the State House in Boston is now the repository of the Amelia Fowler archives. Apparently they ended up on Beacon Hill from the NPS Harper's Ferry facility. Hundreds of photos of historic flags from around the country.

Nick Artimovich