Lot #7270

Apollo 14 American Flags [Attested Flown] (Group of 12, Damaged) - From the Personal Collection of Edgar Mitchell

Description

From the personal collection of Apollo 14 moonwalker Edgar Mitchell—a group of 12 flown 6.25˝ x 4˝ American flags attested as carried into lunar orbit on Apollo 14, all exhibiting varying degrees of damage and degradation to the blue union (or canton) at upper left. The lot is accompanied by a lengthy report by McCrone Associates, Inc., prepared at the request of James Ferrigan, curator of The Flag Center, Santa Cruz, California, on Mitchell's behalf, in part: "On 25 November 2008, we received a 4˝ x 6˝ American flag which had been carried on the Apollo 14 moon mission. The flag showed severe degradation, and you requested that we analyze the flag to attempt to determine the cause…A significant amount of material in the blue union was missing, and the remaining areas had ragged edges." Following examination using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, they found evidence of alum salt which might have caused long term acidic degradation. Complete with an appendix that includes ultra close-up images of the flag and technical results from the analysis.




Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Karlyn Mitchell, the daughter of Edgar Mitchell.

Auction Info

• Auction Title: Space Exploration
• Dates: #716 - Ended 04/17/2025