The heavy, cotton flag's corners fall over the edges of the Missouri State Museum's work table. For about the last six months, staff members and interns have been tediously caring for the 15-foot-long flag, created in Montgomery County following World War I.
The flag features a blue star for each soldier who served, silver stars for those wounded, gold stars for those who were lost/killed in action and even four red crosses for nurses. Each hand-sewn emblem also carried a name, which is what the museum staff currently is working on.
Eventually, the staff hopes to have a database and detailed photos available for genealogical use.
The museum still is researching the origin of this flag. However, it mirrors the request made by the Missouri Assembly in 1919 for each of the 114 counties to make blue and gold star service flags, said Curator of Collections Katherine Owens.
The collection of county flags, requested to be no more than 3 by 5 feet in size, was displayed for many decades in the museum.
"Given its size, we're not sure if (the newest flag) ever was exhibited at the Capitol," Owens said. "This could be an offshoot; we're still scratching the surface of this flag."
Inside the museum's Riverside facility, the counties' World War I honorary flags are stored either in secure frames or safely rolled away.
Some of the other county World War I banners have ribbons or booklets accompanying them with the list of names of those who died and sometimes all who served, Owens said. That the Montgomery County flag had the names on each star makes it unique, she said.
The Cole County banner says it was prepared under the direction of the Cole County Court, noting 1,286 individuals served. It memorializes 56 gold stars and one red cross for those who died in service to their country.
"It was one of the first to be conserved," Owens said.
Other area counties represented in this collection are Morgan, Miller, Maries, Osage, Moniteau and Boone.
The Montgomery County flag is the first artifact purchased for the museum by its Friends of the Missouri State Museum, incorporated in 2012.
Before this, the friends group had helped with more short-term needs, such as a pavilion for outdoor events, public address equipment for tour guides, and signage to help visitors find the museum, said President Sarah Kliethermes.
The large flag was noticed in a local antique store, Kliethermes said. She commended the local businessman for his concern to see the historic item housed in a Missouri museum.
"We were able to respond quickly," Kliethermes said. "That's our role; we can step in and fill a need.
"The museum has had a push to conserve flags; so we knew others were floating around. ... What we didn't expect was to find a flag of that size in the museum's backyard."
The museum has focused attention on its flag collection, more than 450 in all, for restoration and incorporation in rotating museum displays.
Many counties may not know these flags are held by the museum, Owens said.
With the approach of the 100th anniversary of the United States entering World War I (April 2017), the museum hopes to spread that word.
"It's a really cool thing that the Legislature decided to do that," Owens said of the World War I county banners.
A ceremony was held in the House of Representatives chamber April 23, 1919; afterward the initial 68 county banners hung around the Capitol's balcony, Owens said.
The Daily Capital News reported the next day that the Clinton County flag was the most valuable on display, with each of its 22 gold stars made from solid gold. The museum also has conserved that banner.
Later, these World War I commemorative flags were displayed in vertical, hinged frames. And, finally, they were stored away.
The state museum holds 92 of the 114 county flags, Owens said.
These flags can be seen online at missourioverthere.org, privately created as a virtual museum preserving Missourians' role in World War I. Brian Grubbs with the Springfield-Greene County library district leads the Missouri Over There project, which began in 2012.
The state museum's county banners collection, as well as its World War I regimental flags collection, are both featured on this website, which also includes 12,000 pages of primary-source materials to benefit both classroom teachers and future scholarly publications.
"In the post-war years, Missouri was a flurry of commemorative activities," Grubbs said.
Many communities erected statues, plaques, halls or markers to remember the service immediately following 1919.
"This is a piece of that," Grubbs said. "Different organizations created these banners to reflect on their county as a whole."
The flags also will be featured in an upcoming exhibit for the Soldiers and Sailors' Hall on the first floor of the Capitol, which will open Nov. 4, 2016, to remember the impacts of World War I on the Missouri homefront, Owens said.
"World War I is sort of a forgotten war," Owens said. "Hopefully, we can recapture some of that interest as the centennial approaches."
On the web: missourioverthere.org/explore/collections/missouri-county-banners