Sarah Noggle Textile Conservator ~story and photos by Bob Gustin
“When you handle an old textile, you learn a lot about how it was done…. A lot of handwork is logical. It’s lasted that long because someone thought it out. It’s logical and it made sense.”
P
icture this: It’s 1861, and soon-to-be President Abraham Lincoln is making his way through rural Illinois in a horse-drawn buggy. He’s headed to Springfield, Illinois, where he’ll catch a train to Washington, D.C. In some little settlement along the way, ladies of the town come out to greet him, and present a handspun, handwoven 34-star American flag to him. (Kansas was
36 Our Brown County • Nov./Dec. 2020
admitted to the union earlier that year.) But it’s a rough road, and Honest Abe folds the flag and sits on it to cushion the ride. Sarah Noggle knows it’s possible that story may not be true. But it’s the story that was told to Lincoln College officials in Lincoln, Illinois, when they accepted the old flag for their collection, though the 34-star flag was not officially adopted until July 4 of that year. It was, in any case, the flag of the Lincoln presidency, whether he actually sat on it or not. No other president served while the 34-star flag was flown. That flag was one of the projects Sarah took on as a textile conservator, making repairs so that it can be properly displayed. In the world of historic textiles, there are three levels: preservation, which seeks to prevent further damage to a piece of cloth; conservation, which makes repairs necessary to make the piece visually appealing; and restoration, restoring the piece to as close as possible to its original condition. Sarah, a Brown County weaver and textile artist, has worked for 14 years as a fabric conservationist for museums, universities, and public and private collections.
