Raising the flag on museum redo

The American flag that “so proudly we hail’d,” the inspiration for Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner,” will be the focal point of an $85-million renovation at the National Museum of American History in Washington.

In 1998, museum officials determined the tattered flag measuring 30 by 42 feet could no longer support its own weight when hung vertically. The museum will close Sept. 5 and reopen in summer 2008 with a new flag room for displaying the historic 15-star banner.

After a nine-year job of strengthening it, completed last fall, the flag will rest almost horizontally. Visitors will view it from behind a wall of nonreflecting plate glass.