Margaret Holben Ellis

Margaret Holben Ellis, Eugene Thaw Professor of Paper Conservation; Director, Thaw Conservation Center, The Morgan Library and Museum (part-time); Conservation Consultant, Villa La Pietra
In addition to being the Eugene Thaw Professor of Paper Conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts, Margret also serves as Director of the Thaw Conservation Center at the Morgan Library & Museum. She teaches courses on the hands-on conservation treatment of prints and drawings as well as technical connoisseurship seminars for future art historians at both the graduate and under-graduate level.  She has published and lectured on technical issues related to artists ranging from Raphael and Titian to Pollock, Samaras, Dubuffet and Lichtenstein. At the moment she is exploring the significance of “paper as part of the picture”, the possibility of applying computer-generated pattern recognition algorithms to the characterization of antique papers, specifically as used in Rembrandt prints, and Jean Dubuffet’s assemblages d’empreintes – specifically, were they created through myth or deliberate manipulation? Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Works of Art on Paper, for which she served as volume editor, and which was published by the Getty Conservation Institute in 2014. The revised edition of The Care of Prints and Drawings will be published in 2016.  Professional and academic awards have included the Caroline and Sheldon Keck Award (2003) for a sustained record of excellence in education, the Rutherford John Gettens Merit Award (1997) in recognition of outstanding service to the profession both conferred by the AIC, a Fellowship from the American Academy in Rome (1994), the first Rome Prize (1994) to be awarded to a conservator, and a scholars residency at the Getty Conservation Institute in 2015. Currently, she is the Vice-President and Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works of Art (AIC), Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC), and Accredited Conservator/Restorer of the International Institute of Conservation (ICON).