Inaugural Lecture on photographic heritage

Debra Hess Norris, Henry Francis du Pont Chair in Fine Arts

4:48 p.m., Oct. 19, 2004--Debra Hess Norris will deliver her Inaugural Lecture as recently appointed Henry Francis du Pont Chair in Fine Arts, at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 20. Originally scheduled in 006 Kirkbride Lecture Hall, the program has been moved to 115 Purnell Hall. Entitled “Don’t Leave Grandma in the Attic: The Preservation of Our Photographic Heritage,” the lecture is sponsored by Interim Dean Bobby Gempesaw and the College of Arts and Sciences and is open to the public.

An internationally recognized expert in the field of photographic conservation, Norris is a graduate of the University and received her master’s degree from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, which she currently chairs.

The recipient of almost $4 million in grants from such organizations as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Getty Grant Program, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Leo and Karen Gutmann Foundation, Norris is widely published and a frequent lecturer worldwide.

Norris has served as a consultant at the Hermitage, the Israeli State Museum, the Library of Congress and other institutions around the world and has advised treatments for different collections, ranging from the negatives of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Andy Warhol photographs.

Among her honors, Norris received the Rutherford John Gettens Merit Award, was inducted into UD’s Alumni Wall of Fame and served as president of the American Institute for Conservation, receiving its Sheldon and Caroline Keck Award for “excellence in the education and training of conservation professionals.”

Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.