About me
Mary French is a book conservator for Special Collections at the Boston Public Library. She previously worked for the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) and Cambridge University Library, and has interned at Harvard Business School’s Baker Library, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Leather Conservation Centre in Northampton, UK. Her path towards a career in book conservation began as a student employee for the Book Arts Lab of Wellesley College, assisting in bookbinding, letterpress printing, papermaking, and marbling workshops, as well as a Conservation Assistant in the Conservation Department during the summers. Following her graduation from Wellesley she earned an MA in Book Conservation from West Dean College in the UK. While at West Dean, Mary was named a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust Craft Scholar, and was invited to exhibit her bookbinding work at the Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace and attend the Royal Preview Day. Mary is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation. Her conservation specialisms include the conservation of books, leather, unbound paper and parchment materials, Islamic manuscripts, Victorian hair albums, birch bark manuscripts, and Cairo Genizah fragments.
