HISTORIC FLAG LOSING ITS BATTLE : SMITHSONIAN TRYING TO PRESERVE 1812 BANNER THAT INSPIRED ANTHEM.

Byline: Michael Kilian Chicago Tribune 

What so proudly we hailed is falling apart. And the dawn's early light may have something to do with it.

Worried about the declining state of the nation's cherished Star-Spangled Banner, the Smithsonian Institution, its keeper for the last 89 years, has launched a project to save the nation's most important flag.

The 30-foot-by-42-foot national icon, one of the major attractions of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, survived the assault on Baltimore's Fort McHenry by a British invading force at the climax of the War of 1812.

And the sight of it still flying over the fort the morning after the attack inspired Washington lawyer Francis Scott Key to write what became the country's national anthem.

But time, light, pollution, heat and humidity have taken their toll on the honored threads.

``The flag is made of organic material, and all organic material deteriorates,'' said the history museum's senior artifact conservator, Suzanne Thomassen-Krauss.

Though the banner is not crumbling, it is in the slow, inexorable and inevitable process of deteriorating ``unless you slow down the atoms' molecular motion - and you can't do that,'' Thomassen-Krauss said. ``The question is how fast it ages. We're never going to eliminate deterioration. What we hope to do is slow it down so the flag will be here for many generations.''

When the flag was given to the Smithsonian by the family of Maj. George Armistead, who commanded Fort McHenry during the famous battle, it was with the proviso that the banner be ``displayed and preserved for future generations.''

``The problem is how many generations,'' said museum associate director Ron Becker, who heads the flag preservation project. ``We want to assure the public, and ourselves, that we have done the very best by this wonderful icon.''

The Star-Spangled Banner has been cleaned several times over the last century, the last time in 1983, when it was vacuumed ``very carefully,'' according to Becker.

It was then that the museum installed what was considered the ultimate preservation device - an opaque, giant-size covering that was slid up over the flag to protect it from light and dirt, then lowered to show the flag to the public.

When the computer-driven device recently broke down, Smithsonian officials decided they should not simply fix it, but should conduct a study and launch a new save-the-flag program that would use advances in preservation technique and technology made since 1983.

Late last month, the institution brought in conservators, scientists, historians and other experts from around the world to join museum staffers in creating a 50-member permanent body devoted to the flag's preservation.

Ironically, several members of the group are from Canada and Britain, America's enemies in the War of 1812, which was fought in large part as a vain attempt by the United States to snatch Canada from Britain while the English were busy in another war with Napoleon.

If visibly old and frayed, the flag is still largely intact. Becker said it's hard to determine how fast it's deteriorating because there's no scientific record of the state of its condition when the Smithsonian took possession of it.

Also unknown is what the flag was exposed to during its military service, though visual inspections and tests on minute samples of the flag have failed to detect any gunpowder or evidence of cannon shot.

Key's anthem refers to ``broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,'' that ``gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.''

But according to Becker and historians in the save-the-flag project, the Star-Spangled Banner was not flying during that historic night, nor raised during the battle. Rather, it was run up the flagpole on the morning after as a means of sticking it to the vanquished British.

Even if it had flown during the attack, Key could not have seen it during the night, because he was on a ship eight miles away and ``it was a dark and stormy night,'' Becker said.

``He observed the battle, and saw the shots from the British ships, but he could not tell what was happening. The distance was too great and it was raining very hard. The flag would have been soaking wet and been hard against the flagpole.''

``It was the largest flag of its time,'' Becker said. ``It was a way of showing the British that the American flag still flies. The next morning (after battle), literally when the smoke cleared and the dawn broke, they could see this huge flag eight miles away.''

Becker said the panel had just begun its work and had not agreed on a plan, but Thomassen-Krauss said the best means of preserving fragile and endangered artifacts is probably through stabilizing their environments.

``That's the consensus in the field of conservation,'' she said. ``That's why the pyramids get closed. That's why they engineered a new environmental system in the Sistine Chapel.''

Becker said the preservation effort would likely include the installation of less damaging, fiber-optic lighting and humidity controls. The project would also include a new means of displaying the flag that would protect it while continuing to make it accessible to the public.

``We haven't determined the cost,'' Becker said, ``but it will be in the millions. We plan to raise some of it through private donations. And we certainly want to give the Congress an opportunity to help.''