About me
Maria Vazquez has a Master’s of Science degree in Textile Conservation from the University of Rhode Island. She also has three Master Seamstress certificates through the University of Rhode Island, and eighteen years of sewing experience. In high school, she went to a trades school where she learned carpentry, and her parents were electricians, making her experience in both museums and the construction field a perfect storm for handling a museum construction project.
Currently, she works for the United States Naval War College Museum (NWCM) as their Collections Manager, and she’s been there for three years. Prior to working for the Navy, she did many textile conservation projects through her volunteer work, and has been on multiple PBS specials, including one documenting the conservation she performed on the oldest, and most complete, flag in North America, the Byfield Flag.
As Collections Manager for the NWCM, she has been in charge of a $30K anchor conservation project which involved crane movement, shipping, dismantling, and restoration of an 11,000lb anchor off the USS Constellation. She subsequently was put in charge of a $7M climate-controlled storage facility construction project, helping to create a conservation room and micro-artifact storage facility inside a warehouse on the Naval base in Newport, RI.
