Thirteen Paper Stars: What it Takes to Display a Two Hundred Year Old Flag

Sunday, June 14^th at 1:00 p.m.

Speaker: Michelle Pagan, conservator

Included with Museum Admission

The American flag currently on display at the JMM is unique in several ways: made of Egyptian cotton, at a time when American flags were always made of wool, 13 paper stars, and only 11 stripes, but why?

 

Explore the story of how this mysterious flag came into the collection of the JMM, and what techniques have been used to exhibit it safely at the Museum. You will have a chance to pose questions to the Collections Manager, and to the Textile Conservator who made this flag to make it available for viewing today.

 

Michele Pagan is a Conservator in Private Practice, and a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation.  She has been conserving textiles since 1984, with clients such as the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the National Museum of American History, the Valentine Museum in Richmond VA, and the State of Vermont, where she conserved the Civil War Flag collection. She practices conservation in Washington DC and Brookfield Vermont.