North American Graduate Programs in the Conservation of

number of program graduates are now directing and/or teaching in the
programs, which helps to ensure the continuing growth of professionalism
in the field.
Similarly impressive are the number of graduates who have provided
leadership for the national and regional professional organizations,
notably the American Institute for Conservation and the National Institute
for Conservation (now Heritage Preservation).
In conclusion, the far-sighted individuals who established this nation's
first graduate training programs in the 1960s and early 1970s deserve a
great deal of credit for the vision that guided their development of curriculum
and for the never-ending effort required to maintain funding for
the programs. Those of us who have guided training since then have kept
the original vision intact while perhaps expanding its boundaries as the
field has become more sophisticated and sensitive to the art and other cultural
objects for which the profession bears responsibility. The training
programs surely can be credited for the greatly increased professionalization
of the field and the impressive expertise evidenced by its dedicated
practitioners today.
Marigene H. Butler
Former Director, Intermuseum Conservation Association
Emeritus Head of Conservation, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Marigene (Mrs. Daniel K.) Butler has enjoyed a long and distinguished career
as paintings conservator, microscopist, and conservation administrator. From
1978 until her retirement in 1997, Mrs. Butler served as head of conservation at
the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). Over those nearly two decades, she
established the PMA's Conservation Department and oversaw its development.
Through her efforts, it became one of the leading conservation laboratories in the
nation, making substantial contributions in conservation training and scientific
research, as well as providing outstanding care for the museum's extensive collections.
An A.B. graduate in Art History from Mount Holyoke College, Mrs. Butler
apprenticed for two years in paintings conservation with Elizabeth H. Jones at the
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. Beginning in 1966, she trained in this specialty
for another two years under Alfred Jakstas at the Art Institute of Chicago.
She remained at the Institute for a subsequent five years as assistant, and then
associate, paintings conservator with responsibilities for both the treatment of
paintings and the identification of their materials with the polarizing microscope.
After training in polarizing microscopy with the eminent American microscopist
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