About me
Fran Ritchie is an Objects Conservator at the National Park Service's (NPS) Harpers Ferry Center, focusing on organic materials, especially leather objects and natural history specimens. Fran joined the NPS after working several years on the taxidermy and Native American collections at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. Prior to AMNH she helped preserve natural science, indigenous, and decorative arts/historic collections across the country, from the National Museum of the American Indian and the Harvard Peabody Museum, to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Biltmore Estate, and the Alaska State Museum.
Fran graduated from the Art Conservation graduate program at SUNY Buffalo State University and also holds an MA in Museum Anthropology from Columbia University. She earned her BA from the University of Delaware in Art Conservation and Anthropology, with a minor in American Material Culture Studies. She is a volunteer for and peer-reviewed member of the American Institute for Conservation, and the Chair of the Conservation Committee for the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections.
