WASHINGTON – Torn and tattered, the Star-Spangled Banner lies in a laboratory at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where experts go through the painstaking process of conserving one of America’s most important treasures.

Marilyn Zoidis, a Bangor native and curator of the Star-Spangled Banner Project, has taken on the awesome responsibility of overseeing the project since 1999.

“Before I took this job I thought the project had great potential,” said Zoidis, who once worked as a history teacher at Bangor High School and was executive director of the Bangor Historical Society. She is the daughter of Eleanor and the late Peter Zoidis, who co-founded Pilots Grill restaurant in Bangor.

More than seven million visitors have come to Washington to view the flag preservation process through the museum’s 50-foot glass wall, which stretches from floor to ceiling.

However, Zoidis is concerned with more than just preservation of the 34-by-30-foot flag.

An official Web site gives visitors the chance to see the progress of the project and learn about the history of the flag and how it came to be known as Star-Spangled Banner. Long distance educational programs have been created and more than 150,000 teaching packets have been circulated to educators to help inform students about the historic flag.

The flag was officially donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1912 by Eben Appleton, grandson to the commandant of Fort McHenry in Baltimore where the flag once flew during the British bombardment in 1814. The event inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words to the national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Since receiving the flag, the Smithsonian has sponsored two major restoration projects: one in 1914, when a supportive linen backing was sewn on, and a second in 1982, when a major surface cleaning was undertaken.

Zoidis and a team of specialists are involved in cleaning and preserving the remaining threads of the flag that have deteriorated. Hopes are to return the flag to its original state as much as possible.

About 240 square feet of the nearly 3-story tall flag are missing due to wear and tear and to “souveniring,” in which pieces were given away for mementos. Five such pieces, one about 3-inches square, were given to the Maine Historical Society by the family of George Henry Preble in 1909.

Due to the fragility of the remaining threads, the flag, which weighs about 50 pounds without the linen backing, cannot be displayed hanging as it previously was. Instead the flag will be placed in a special climate-controlled casing.

“Visitors have told us over and over that they are not disappointed at seeing the tattered condition of the flag, rather they are awed that it has survived,” Zoidis said. “They tell us that the holes and tears show that this is the real Star-Spangled Banner, an old flag full of history that would be lost if restored to look like new.”

The anticipated completion date for the project is at the end of 2002.

The flag will be the focal point of the exhibit, “For Which it Stands: American Flag, American Life,” which will delve into the history, symbolism and emotions associated with the American flag.

As a cultural and social historian with a master’s degree in social studies education and American history, Zoidis intends to do more than help in the preservation process; she wants people to look at the flag and see meaning in it.

“I want to ask more complex questions,” she said. “What is the meaning behind the flag? What are the ideals? Why do we feel so passionately about it?

“People have always reacted to the flag with interest and feeling, but since Sept. 11 the vulnerability of the country has made people see the flag through a new lens,” Zoidis said.

Although tourism to the nation’s capital dropped off dramatically following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, museum spokeswoman Valeska Hilbig, estimates that half the visitors to the Smithsonian ask about the flag and are always fascinated with its story.

“When people talk about it, they seem to all reference events of 9-11,” she said. “They all say they feel more patriotic now and want to know more about the things that symbolize patriotism.”

Since Sept. 11, teen-agers have shown the greatest interest in the Star Spangled Banner project.

Past generations that lived through WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War have always held an understanding and respect for the flag, Zoidis said.

For teens, however, the events of Sept. 11 brought a newfound understanding and appreciation for patriotism and unity in America.

“Sept. 11 was the first major global event that involved them,” Zoidis said.

For each American the flag symbolizes something different. In 1924, Ku Klux Klan members displayed the American flag proudly during a rally at the nation’s capital. Forty years later, marchers in Selma, Ala., carried the American flag during the civil rights movement.

“How does a single symbol have two meanings at the same time?” Zoidis asked. “These are the issues we are going to explore.”

The burning of the American flag in protest has often been regarded as unpatriotic and controversial, but Zoidis is quick to point out that those who burn the flag do so because the flag symbolizes something different to them.

“When people burn flags they are angry that their ideals are not being met and they are protesting the policies of the government,” she said.

The events of Sept. 11 proposed a real challenge for curators of the project and Smithsonian officials. While it was important to leave the exhibit open to the public, there were real concerns about ensuring the security of one of the country’s most cherished national symbols.

During World War II, the Star-Spangled Banner, along with a number of other treasures, was removed from the Smithsonian and housed for two years in Luray, Va., for security purposes.

However, officials decided that the flag preservation project needed to stay open to the public and guards were posted at the exhibit.

Zoidis was pleased with the decision to keep the exhibit open. Even in the most tragic of circumstances the flag is an important symbol to Americans, she said.

After the completion of the Star-Spangled Banner Project, Zoidis will begin her new assignment as lead curator of the new exhibit, “Sept. 11th: Bearing Witness to History,” a position she feels deeply honored to have been chosen for.

For more on the flag that inspired The Star Spangled Banner, see the Smithsonian Institution’s Web site at: www.americanhistory.si.edu/ssb/.

PHOTO BY DAVE ELLIS FOR THE BANGOR DAILY NEWS

Marilyn Zoidis, formerly of Bangor, has been the curator for the Star-Spangled Banner preservation project at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., for three years.