In October 2022, the Conway Public Library received a $20,000 Mooseplate grant from the Conservation License Plate Trust Fund, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts (NHSCA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to perform conservation treatment on the library’s Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) flag.
The flag has been part of the library collection for nearly one hundred years. It was donated to the Conway Public Library (AKA Jenks Memorial Library) on May 28th, 1924.
This grant allowed the Museum Textile Service (MTS) of Andover, Massachusetts to conserve and frame the flag so it could be properly displayed at the Conway Public Library.
The GAR was founded in April 1866 and disbanded in 1956 when the last surviving member died. The GAR was a benevolent, fraternal organization composed of Union veterans of the Civil War. It grew to included hundreds of “posts” (local community units) throughout the country.
The library’s flag was used as a parade flag to honor Civil War veterans who belonged to Conway’s Custer Post No. 47. The group proudly carried this flag in processions every year, at encampments and Memorial Day parades, celebrating the service and sacrifice of soldiers in the American Civil War.
Over one hundred men from the Conway area, veterans of service in the war, belonged to Custer Post.
April 12 was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter and the day Union soldiers became eligible to join the Grand Army of the Republic.
