Emily Hishta Cohen received an MS in the Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works and an MA in the History of Art & Archaeology in 2017 from the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she was an Andrew W. Mellon Library & Archive Fellow. The images above are from her internship year in the E. Martin (1944) and Ethel Wunsch Conservation Laboratory at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the supervision of Jana Dambrogio, Thomas F. Peterson (1957) Conservator. Visit Instagram for more images from her time in the MIT libraries' conservation lab.
Emily has been an avid reader and art lover since early childhood; her interest in printing and bookbinding began as an undergraduate art student at Washington University in St. Louis, and she became interested in conservation when she observed the conservators at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum working in the exhibition rooms in 2011. In addition to studying the history, material science, and conservation of books and paper at the Conservation Center in New York, she had the opportunity to learn from mentors in other institutions, notably the Morgan Library & Museum, Columbia University Libraries, and the Grolier Club. This portfolio highlights selected projects from her coursework and internships. Pages detailing the analysis and treatment of works of art require a password, in order to protect the privacy of the institutions where the works are held.
Many thanks to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The National Endowment for the Humanities; Margaret Holben Ellis, Hannelore Roemich, Kevin Martin, Cat Lukaszewski & everyone at the Conservation Center; Jana Dambrogio and Ayako Letizia; Maria Fredericks, Alexis Hagadorn and the conservators of the Morgan Library & Museum and Columbia University Libraries; Cathleen Baker, Salvador Muñoz-Viñas, Fernando Peña, Clara Ines Rojas Sebesta, Thomas E. Crow, Dawn Walus, Evan Knight, Emily K. Bell, Francesca Baldry, Mary Patrick Bogan, Todd Pattison, Laura McCann, Lou Di Gennaro, Dwight Primiano, Barbara Mangum, John Sarra, & Jana Harper; and everyone else whose support and mentorship has made these endeavors possible.