How do you preserve flags?

[Greg Collins]

I had the opportunity, several years ago, to visit the flag storage facility at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. It was a private tour afforded me by the flag curator for some work I had done for a heritage-type organization. It was quite impressive both with respect to the conservation techniques and the flags themselves. As has been pointed out, elements in the air, folding and light all degrade a flag over time. Also, temperature and moisture in the air will have a damaging effect. The severity of these aforementioned elements will, also, depend on the material used in the flag. Silk (real) looks great but seems to be the least archival- just doesn't last. In the Museum, silk flags are put between layers of mylar- they aren't touched- and when the other side is needed to be viewed (very often, earlier flags had different images on the other sides), the mylar is "rolled" until the other side is "up". Cotton dries out and crumbles and, therefore, must be handled in much the same way. But, a material called "wool bunting"- the material used on most of the Northern Virginia issued battleflags (the square flags with the X) seems almost indestructible and were, at the time of my visit, loosely folded and piled in a corner of the space. A great material although quite heavy- these flags needed a pretty good breeze to send them "flapping"- but very sturdy. Also, they don't seem to fade at the rate the others do.
So, according to the Museum's conservation practices and depending on the material; climate control (humidity), exposure to unfiltered air, exposure to light and handling (folding) are all considerations for flag maintenance.