When Jae Mentzer graduated from the University of Delaware in 2001, she had a somewhat unusual combination of credentials.
"I ended up with a double major in art conservation and art history and a minor in chemistry, which is useful for a photograph conservator. I love what I'm doing and sometimes wonder where I'd be now if I had gone to another school," Mentzer said.
Upon graduation, Mentzer was accepted into the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, where she is specializing in photograph conservation. Mentzer has a large portfolio of photograph projects she has worked on during the past year, including an album featuring snapshots of the Beatles, 19th-century African-American photographs she treated for mold and works by well-known artistic photographer Gertrude Kasebier, who died in 1934.
"The University of Delaware is one of only three schools in the country with a graduate photograph conservation program, and our services are in demand," Debra Norris, chairperson of art conservation and a photo conservator, said. "We work on photographs from a number of different sources-museums, archives and privately owned collections."
UD's master of science in art conservation program, established in 1974 as a cooperative effort between Winterthur and the University, educates and trains conservation professionals to examine, stabilize and treat art and artifacts. Major conservation specialty areas include: textiles, wood, paper, photographs, library materials, paintings, natural science collections, and anthropological, historical, decorative and art objects of all materials.
For more information on art conservation at UD, visit [http://seurat.art.udel.edu/artcons/index.html].
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