Peters Flag restoration

FROM RAGS TO FLAGS
by Grace Peters
1973

Three hallowed flags with a history to be cherished by every American, seared by age, and burned and torn by shot and shell in battle, the priceless heritage of the Thomasville County Historical Society, are now back in home after being made whole, restored by Mrs. Grace Peters of Westport, California

During the War Between the States, they were carried into many a hard fought battle under General Robert I Lee. One of them is still stained with the blood of the brave man who marched into battle carrying it, who as he fell passed it on to a fellow soldier, on to victory or defeat in the final death at Appotomadox.

The work of restoring these beautiful and historic records is a dedicated one practiced for many years by Mrs. Peters, the wife of Dr. T. K. Peters, formerly the Archivist at Oglethorpe University who preserved the entire knowledge of the world for the people of the future in the year AD 8113, in the first Time Capsule which is under the Hearst Building at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta Georgia.

In 1939 while on a visit to the capitol museum, he saw the fading and decaying flags stored in an obscure niche in the Museum. He spoke to Governor Ed Rivers, imploring him to try and have the flags taken care of. The Governor was interested and finally had a bill passed appropriating a sum of money to do the restoration work. Dr. Peters who was an archaeologist was teaching at Oglethorpe, and had made a study of ancient things and their preservation.

Grace Peters his wife was intensely interested also, and together they devised a method of preserving the flags for posterity by encapsulating them, so that no air could touch them and at the same time discovered a preservative agent which would keep them from fading or decaying. This was the beginning of a long siege of activity by Mrs. Peters as she put together the ancient tattered flags to restore them to apparently new appearance. Hour after hour of the most painstaking work in n placing the torn shreds together was accomplished, reweaving holes eaten by moths, but leaving holes burned by shot and shell.

Finally the flags were restored to their former appearance and then encapsulated between sheets of Plexiglas so that they could be viewed from both sides as each side had painted and gold leaf emblems. One of the flags was that of the Thomasville Guards, which was organized in 1853 and was in shreds not more than one quarter of an inch wide. In the center is a circle with the name of the guards on one side and on the other in a similar circle the state seal of Georgia. The Ochlocknee Light Infantry flag, was that of a company formed in 1861, and the flag was made by local ladies from silk dress material and beautifully painted and gilded with gold leaf. It had on one side, also, the name of the company and it organization date, and the date that it was captured in Savannah, in 1846 was inscribed after the capture.

The commander of the Yankee company which captured it, lived in Cincinnati, and on his death his heirs feeling that it should be returned to the South, after considerable research sent it to Waycross, Georgia, to the son of the former commander of the company, Dr. Charles Joshua Paine. The son also named Charles J Paine and his brother Kirk Paine decided that it should go to the Thomasville Historical Society, headed by Mrs. Wm A. Watt Sr. as President, to be preserved in memory of their father. . Mrs. Watt contacted Hon Ben Fortson, Secretary of State for Georgia to find who had preserved the flags for the State, and then contacted Mrs. Peters, who had moved to Westport, California and she was commissioned to make the restoration. The Ochnocknee flag was actually two flags of silk sewed together back to back. It was presented to the company by Miss Lena Slixas, in June 1861 on the departure of the company to battle under Gen Lee. The third flag was an ancient Stars and Bars of woolen bunting torn and frayed and having in one corner blood stains of the young man who carried it into battle, as previously recounted.

When finished, the flags were encapsulated between sheets of heavy Plexiglas, for protection and have been sent on to Atlanta to the firm of Lett and Barron, who made the frames for the 37 flags previously restored by Dr and Mrs. Peters, and now in the State Capitol there. There they will be appropriately framed in large aluminum frames so that they can be viewed from both sides.

August 30, 1973
Newspaper article
Paper unknown article carried on UPI

Pioneer cameraman needs help with film

Westport(UPI) - T K Peters, a pioneer newsreel cameraman who filmed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake from the window of his hotel room, wants somebody to help him preserve his shots of the quake, fire and other historical events.
Peters, who lived quietly in this small seacoast town 150 miles north of the Golden Gate, will be 90 years old on his next birthday.
He recently established the “San Francisco Photo Archives,” as a permanent guardian for his irreplaceable films.
“I figure it will take about $20,000 to restore the film and put sound to it,” says Peters.
If he can get financial backing, Peters plans to edit the 12,000 feet of film he shot himself and combine it with other historical footage about San Francisco which he was acquired over the years
. He hopes to produce a motion picture story of the city going back to the De Anza expedition a dramatization of which was filmed at the Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915.
Some of Peter’ own footage predates the great earthquake. In 1903 he filmed San Francisco’s notable citizens, and he has 1904 movies of Lillian Russell at the old Grand Opera House.
The collection also includes movies taken by Herbert Miles in 1896 with the camera riding on a cable car up California Street. This is believed to be the first motion picture ever taken in san Francisco.
The day before the great quake in 1906, Peter was scouting around the city for newsreel material when he came across the great singer Enrico Caruso. He chatted with him and took films. Caruso was among those routed from their beds in the Palace Hotel by the quake the next morning.
Peters, a native of Norfolk VA is a story subject himself.
He left home at the age of 15 to join an expedition to the Yucatan as an artist. A few years later he was creating illusions for magicians. The he traveled the world with some of the .
He joined the Pathe Freres in Vincennes, France, and thus became on of the pioneers of the motion picture industry. In the ensuing years he made films in Europe, Asia, and the South Seas
. In connection with developing a military air camera during WWI, he helped build the first altimeter for the US Signal Corps.
Later Peters was involved in the development of neon tubes for sign.
Because he had built on of the first microfilm cameras Peters was called on by the Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, to head it “Crypt of Civilization” project. He spent five years collection artifacts and documents which were placed in an impregnable vault May 25, 1940, to be opened in the year 8113.
Later he headed the Chinese Air Force College in Georgia and after WWII he collected equipment and tools to establish a factory in China for aviation instruments.
But the equipment fell into the hands of the Chinese communists, and Peters joined Lockheed Co until his retirement in 1960.

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