Email digest for the Global Conservation Forum (ConsDistList) egroup. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. RE: Change Makers Webinar on Housing Design and Microclimate Impacts - July 9 2. In Memoriam: Henry W. Lie (1953–2026) 3. JOB POSTING: 3 Digitisation Posts, Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, UK 4. Refinishing slate countertops and lab tables ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.From: adrian hernandez Posted: Monday July 20, 2026 6:07 AM Subject: RE: Change Makers Webinar on Housing Design and Microclimate Impacts - July 9 Message: Hello Everyone, A recording of this talk is now avialble here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fis7OcD4LIU&list=PLH0WXCtI2noifARCkF-U15KtaR-tCJAzz&index=11 ------------------------------ adrian hernandez AIC Sustainability Committee Outreach Officer ------------------------------ ------------------------------------------- Original Message: Sent: 06-08-2026 19:17 From: adrian hernandez Subject: Change Makers Webinar on Housing Design and Microclimate Impacts - July 9 Change Makers Webinar on Housing Design and Microclimate Impacts with Stephanie Gowler and Angie Yvarra McGrew Please join us at 9amPDT/12pmEDT on Thursday, July 9, as we explore housing designs and how they impact microclimates. Please register in advance here: https://learning.culturalheritage.org/products/conversations-with-change-makers-11-looking-at-housing-designs-microclimate-impacts#tab-product_tab_overview <https://learning.culturalheritage.org/products/conversations-with-change-makers-11-looking-at-housing-designs-microclimate-impacts#tab-product_tab_overview> Museums, libraries, and archives have been boxing collections since time immemorial. Offering protection from airborne pollutants and mishandling, boxes have also served as buffers, reducing fluctuations of relative humidity in the storage microenvironment. At the same time, efforts to maintain and inspire access have often been at odds with the closed box concept. Our two speakers, Angie Yvarra at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, and Stephanie Gowler at Northwestern University Libraries, have been exploring solutions to this conundrum in very creative ways. In select situations, they have also included environmental data gathering in their design processes. Each will present their work for about 20 minutes, and we will take questions at the end. Organized by the AIC Sustainability Committee, this webinar is the 11th in a series of Conversations with Change Makers, where we address energy use and the environmental impact of the buildings in which cultural heritage is stored, exhibited, and studied. Recordings of previous webinars can be found here: Conversations with Change Makers <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH0WXCtI2noifARCkF-U15KtaR-tCJAzz>. ------------------------------ adrian hernandez AIC Sustainability Committee Outreach Officer ------------------------------ 2.From: Francesca Bewer Posted: Monday July 20, 2026 9:59 AM Subject: In Memoriam: Henry W. Lie (1953–2026) Message: In Memoriam: Henry W. Lie (1953–2026) Henry had a way of falling silent as he settled down in his signature comfy vest, sleeves rolled up, to examine an object in the lab, adjusting the lighting—and often a microscope—just so to reveal a detail that only he seemed to notice, before he'd look up and invite you to see it too. That quality of attention—patient, exacting, and paired with a generous desire to share what he saw—defined more than three decades of work as a conservator. The Harvard Art Museums and the broader art conservation community mourn the loss of our cherished colleague, Henry Lie. A distinguished objects conservator, teacher, and mentor, Henry shaped the practice and pedagogy of conservation through his promotion of interdisciplinary collaboration, his pioneering applications of digital imaging, and his influential studies of ancient bronzes and three-dimensional artworks. Born in September 1953, Henry graduated from Harvard College in 1976 with an A.B. cum laude in Art History, having developed a deep attachment to the university's collections that would become the setting for his life's work. He received his graduate training at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation and went on to internships and archaeological fieldwork at sites and museums in Wyoming, Türkiye, England, Cyprus, Israel, and at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Even then, colleagues recall, his ease in the field—climbing scaffolding, diving into excavation trenches—matched the same caution and fearlessness he later brought to skiing slopes and Caribbean dive sites, a reflection of the remarkable energy and drive that characterized everything he did. This early combination of rigorous scientific training, treatment skills, hands-on excavation, and close collaboration with archaeologists set the pattern for Henry's career-long commitment to the treatment and technical study of objects. Henry returned to Harvard in 1980 as an intern in the Objects and Sculpture Lab of what was then the Fogg Art Museum's Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, later assuming various roles of objects conservator. He was appointed Director of the Center for Conservation and Technical Studies in 1989, a position he held with quiet authority, kindness, and generosity until 2014, while continuing as Conservator of Objects and Sculpture. In close collaboration with Deputy Director Craigen Bowen, Henry made the department a friendly and welcoming place. Museum staff, visitors, and former interns and fellows remember fondly the coffee at 10:30am each day around the too-small table in the top-floor break room. That daily ritual, together with his legendary annual summer pool party for interns and staff—an occasion he took quiet pride in, where he also welcomed alumni and family members for a joyous afternoon while he manned the grill—cemented a remarkable camaraderie among his staff. In the 1980s, when debates around the cleaning and preservation of outdoor bronzes were especially intense, Henry emerged as a thoughtful and influential voice. He participated in the Save Outdoor Sculpture initiative in Washington, D.C. and led his department in the conservation of many large-scale bronze monuments in the Boston area, throughout New England, and at Harvard. Under his leadership, the conservation center was generously endowed by Philip and Lynn Straus and renamed in their honor in 1994. Working closely with architect Samuel Anderson, Henry oversaw the renovation and expansion of the Straus Center's laboratories in the mid-1990s, inviting involvement from his lab members in every element of the design. The resulting light-filled, technically sophisticated facility that spread over the entire top floor of the Fogg Museum—since redesigned during Renzo Piano's renovation, also under Henry's watch—is widely cited as a model environment for conservation, research, and teaching, open to students, visiting scholars, and colleagues from around the world. The gutting of the Harvard Art Museums’ facility during Piano’s redesign demanded innovative ways to preserve three large 1930s frescoes painted on walls that were either being cut out and moved or left in place as the surrounding structure was dismantled. To protect these works throughout construction, Henry and a small team of Straus colleagues threw themselves into the experimental task of sealing the painted surfaces with cyclododecane, a volatile temporary binding medium useful in conservation as it sublimates slowly without residue. Collaborating with curatorial and conservation colleagues as well as archaeologists and art historians, Henry developed a deep knowledge of bronze casting techniques and surface alteration—expertise he brought to bear on ancient bronze sculpture as well as works from later periods, reaching a wide audience through a series of landmark publications and exhibitions. With archaeologist Carol C. Mattusch, he co-authored technical chapters in The Fire of Hephaistos: Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections (1996), for which they won the Archaeological Institute of America's James R. Wiseman Book Award, and later The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection (2005), for which they received the College Art Association's Charles Rufus Morey Award in 2006. He contributed hundreds of technical entries to the Harvard Art Museums' online catalog of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes and co-authored with Francesca Bewer the technical overview in Susanne Ebbinghaus’ Ancient Bronzes Through a Modern Lens (2005). He turned his research attention to other subjects as well, offering key new insights in his chapter for Medardo Rosso: Second Impressions (2003), which illuminated the sculptor's unconventional working methods. Together with curator Ivan Gaskell, he co-edited Sketches in Clay for Projects by Gian Lorenzo Bernini: Theoretical, Technical, and Case Studies (1999), which featured seminal technical work by fellow objects conservator Tony Sigel. And with research curator Francesca Bewer, he assisted conservators Giovanni and Lorenzo Morigi's technical research on Verrocchio's famed equestrian monument to Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice. A hallmark of Henry's career was his early and sustained advocacy for digital imaging in conservation. In the early 1990s, working closely with technical art historian Ron Spronk, he developed straightforward but powerful methods for mosaicking infrared reflectograms and X-radiographs, and for creating layered composites of technical images and visible-light photography using Adobe Photoshop. This also involved developing a movable easel that could be advanced incrementally to take the small infrared images needed for compositing. These techniques, which Henry also shared generously in lectures and publications, were applied in projects such as the museums' technical studies published in Mondrian: The Transatlantic Paintings (2001) and in Recent Developments in the Technical Examination of Early Netherlandish Painting (2003) and have since become standard tools in conservation laboratories worldwide. He also contributed to the Getty Conservation Institute's Conservation Imaging Consortium and to Robin Thomas's Object ID: Guidelines for Making Records That Describe Art, Antiques and Antiquities. Henry also took part in broader debates around replication, authenticity, and the ethics of re-making modern and contemporary works. His Tate Papers essay "Replicas of László Moholy-Nagy's Light Prop: Busch-Reisinger Museum and Harvard University Art Museums" (2007) articulates a nuanced position on what is at stake—materially, historically, and ethically—when museums commission or exhibit replicas. His influence extended profoundly into teaching, training, and mentorship. Henry taught generations of conservators, both those arriving for the four "Advanced-Level Internships" offered each year and the members of his own staff. His methods were direct and practical—he would sit down next to you at the bench, at the computer, or in the X-ray room, show you how to do something, then make you do it unassisted. He knew that if you had to do it yourself, you would learn it. He also co-developed and taught courses on "The Materials of Art" and "Science and the Practice of Art History," introducing hundreds of Harvard undergraduates and graduate students to the close material study of objects and modeling how to look, and to think critically and creatively. He often said one of his greatest joys was assembling bronze objects from the museums' rich collection for class use, then working one-on-one with students to explain the intricacies of the fabrication process. In these seminars and countless sessions in the conservation labs, he invited students to handle objects, test tools and materials, and engage critically with the evidence they revealed. Harvard Art Museums Director Sarah Ganz Blythe recalls having this experience as a volunteer in the department during her sophomore year at Wellesley College, noting that it “helped bring my future direction into focus.” With former Harvard Art Museums Director Jim Cuno, Henry created two unique doctoral-level positions of Research Fellow/Curators or Conservation and Technical Studies that formed an innovative bridge between curatorial work and conservation. And with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and scientist Narayan Khandekar, he established the museums’ first Postgraduate Fellowship in Conservation Science, created to address the lack of structural training in this emerging professional field. Many of these positions are continuing, and help ensure that his integrated vision between conservation, science, curation and art history continues to shape new generations of museum professionals. Henry received numerous honors, including the College Art Association/National Institute for Conservation Joint Award for Excellence in Conservation (1997), and a Samuel H. Kress Paired Fellowship for Research in Conservation and Art History/Archaeology at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts with Carol Mattusch (1998). Yet colleagues will remember him above all for his modesty, his warmth, and his unfailing willingness to share his time, expertise, and curiosity—whether quietly troubleshooting a difficult treatment, patiently teaching a student to read a radiograph, or leading a team in the careful dis- and reassembly of a monumental sculpture such as Harvard's marble of the emperor Trajan. Henry's commitment to documenting and commemorating material culture stretched into his stewardship of the Farber Gravestone Collection, compiled over many years by his mother and stepfather, Jessie Lie Farber and Daniel Farber. This database comprises thousands of photographs and rubbings of early American gravestones. Carefully preserved and made publicly accessible online, the collection represents a foundational visual resource for the study of funerary art and epigraphy. Henry actively supported its preservation and organization to ensure it remains available to scholars, genealogists, and the broader public. After retiring in 2014, Henry—always an avid outdoors sportsman—turned more fully to beloved pursuits like scuba diving, skiing, swimming, and cycling, and to time with family and friends. He is predeceased by his mother, Jessie Lie Farber; his father, Arne Lie; his stepfather, Daniel L. Farber; and his stepson, Colin Davidson. Henry is survived by his wife, Lucy Baird Boynton; his stepson, Charles Davidson; his daughter, Lucy Lie; and a wide circle of friends, students, and colleagues around the world. We miss him. Henry Lie's legacy endures in the sculptures and monuments he helped preserve, in the imaging methods and technical studies he advanced, and in the many conservators, scientists, and art historians whose work and outlook he shaped. His example reminds us that careful looking, thoughtful collaboration, innovation, and intellectual generosity remain at the heart of conservation. Francesca Bewer with thanks to Tony Sigel, Teri Hensick, Kate Smith, Angela Chang, Penley Knipe, Sarah Ganz Blythe, Megan Schwenke, Narayan Khandekar, Carol Mattusch, and Robert McCabe for their input. ------------------------------ Francesca Bewer Research Curator for Conservation and Technical Study Programs, and Director, Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art Harvard Art Museums Cambridge United States ------------------------------ 3.From: Jacqueline Chapman-Gray Posted: Monday July 20, 2026 10:04 AM Subject: JOB POSTING: 3 Digitisation Posts, Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, UK Message: We're very excited to advertise two roles (three posts total) to work on a collections digitisation project at the Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford as part of the Central England Digitisation Co-Hub. The primary focus of the roles is on high-throughput pinned-insect digitisation, but will also involve digitising herbarium sheets at the Oxford University Herbaria. Please pass this on to anyone you think might be interested. The closing date is midday on 27 July 2026. Senior Digitiser https://oumnh.web.ox.ac.uk/senior-digitiser <https://oumnh.web.ox.ac.uk/senior-digitiser> Fixed-term: Full-time post for 18 months. Salary £32,108- £33,810 per annum Apply for the Senior Digitiser role here <https://my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.display_form?p_company=10&p_internal_external=E&p_display_in_irish=N&p_process_type=&p_applicant_no=&p_form_profile_detail=&p_display_apply_ind=Y&p_refresh_search=Y&p_recruitment_id=187339> Digitiser (2 posts) https://oumnh.web.ox.ac.uk/digitiser <https://oumnh.web.ox.ac.uk/digitiser> Fixed-term: Full-time post for 18 months. Salary: £28,437 - £29,761 per annum Apply for the Digitiser roles here. <https://my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.display_form?p_company=10&p_internal_external=E&p_display_in_irish=N&p_process_type=&p_applicant_no=&p_form_profile_detail=&p_display_apply_ind=Y&p_refresh_search=Y&p_recruitment_id=187340> Contact email: [email protected] <[email protected]> ------------------------------ Jacqueline Chapman-Gray Conservator, Life Collections Museum of Natural History Oxford United Kingdom ------------------------------ 4.From: Arianna Carini Johnston Posted: Monday July 20, 2026 3:46 PM Subject: Refinishing slate countertops and lab tables Message: After 25 years of heavy use, we are looking to refresh our slate counters and table tops in our lab spaces. The slate appears thirsty and inconsistent in color, but we are hesitant to apply a commercial sealant or oil without understanding how it will affect the surface or age. We also acknowledge polishing the surface would be the ideal first step, but we do not have the equipment, expertise, or time. They don't need to be perfect afterwards, just... better. Any recommendations or other experiences with large scale slate are appreciated. Thanks! ------------------------------ Arianna Carini Johnston Conservator Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab ------------------------------ You are subscribed to "Global Conservation Forum (ConsDistList)" as [email protected]. To change your subscriptions, go to http://community.culturalheritage.org/preferences?section=Subscriptions. To unsubscribe from this community discussion, go to https://community.culturalheritage.org/HigherLogic/eGroups/Unsubscribe.aspx?UserKey=d16eaa87-0f69-494b-9f2f-303dbc1222e1&sKey=fab9aa4f27a04c5d876e&GroupKey=757a8f16-505f-4323-8e74-e376757aa9f7.
