Alumni of the Art Conservation Program

For over fifty years, undergraduate and graduate alumni from the Department of Art Conservation have made significant contributions to the field, pioneering innovative examination and treatment techniques, developing national standards for cultural heritage preservation and conserving iconic artworks and artifacts. Today our graduates are prominently employed in museums, libraries, archives, historic sites, private practices, regional conservation laboratories, academic institutions and allied fields in the United States and abroad or pursuing advanced degrees in the art and culture sector.

Our alumni play an active role in our cultural heritage ecosystem as mentors, instructors, advisors, and leaders—reinforcing a culture of shared expertise, professional growth, and collective responsibility for the future of conservation. Their engagement is essential to programmatic growth and to the depth and quality of our students’ education, and they continue to shape the field nationally and internationally. We are deeply grateful to our alumni for their sustained commitment to education, training, and the communities they serve.

Art conservation alumni have examined, analyzed and conserved:

• Thomas Jefferson’s Bible,
• Declaration of Independence,
• The Constitution,
• Emancipation Proclamation,
• Star-Spangled Banner,
• Torch of the Statute of Liberty,
• Dead Sea Scrolls,
• Alan Shepard’s Project Mercury spacesuit,
• George Washington’s Revolutionary War tent,
• and works by artists ranging from Rembrandt to Van Gogh, Grandma Moses, Ringgold, Rauschenberg, Warhol, and Basquiat—from the Old Masters to contemporary craftspeople to innovators in time-based media.

Our alums have worked with underserved communities to preserve their family treasures and have preserved the world’s first photograph, WWII photographs collected by W.E.B. DuBois, Babe Ruth’s baseball contract, the original R2D2 from the movie Star Wars, Elvis Presley’s 81 gold records, the 1905 Wright Flyer III, the original sealskin mittens Matthew Henson wore during the discovery of the North Pole, Native American beadwork and basketry, George Washington’s dentures, Franklin Roosevelt’s braces, original manuscripts by James Joyce and Henry David Thoreau, photographs from NASA missions, Grace Kelly’s wedding dress, Julia Child’s kitchen, and early animation cells from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

They have helped to preserve the photographic heritage from Cuba to the Arab World. They have led in the preservation of the architectural interiors of Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, the Capitol, and the White House. We have also worked at archeological sites from Delaware to Turkey, Mayan murals in the jungles of Guatemala, and Navaho sites in Arizona, as well as studying and preserving the decorative interiors of the Forbidden City.

Alumni have assisted FEMA with emergency response efforts following presidentially declared disasters such as hurricanes and floods, and graduates also have been called upon to assist in international preservation efforts including recovery of collections at the Arab Image Foundation after the Beirut port explosion; preventive care of Iraqi treasures at the Iraqi Institute for the Preservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, treatment and rehousing of collections damaged in the  landslides in Seyðisfjörður, eastern Iceland; and heritage recovery following  floods in Germany’s Ahr Valley and Valencia, Spain.