The next phase of a plan to restore the state’s collection of battle flags got under way today.The second phase of the project involves 30 flags. They were carried proudly into Civil War battles by Iowans, but haven’t seen any action since being locked in a display case in the State Capitol rotunda in 1896. Jerome Thompson of the State Historical Society says the flags were removed from that display case this morning and the battle now is to preserve them.Repairs were made to three of the flags in the 1970s and they want to see how that work has held up. Thompson says a generation of Iowans have never seen the flags and the goal is to make them accessible to the public once again.Thompson says it will take a number of years to restore them to a condition were the flags can be put on public display in the Capitol and Historical Buildings. Thompson says it looks like they’ll have enough funding to fix these flags. The legislature’s given them two appropriations of 150-thousand dollars and the governor is recommending the same amount this year. The state has a total of 181 flags, including some from the Spanish American War and World War One.
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