Elisabeth West FitzHugh (July 30, 1926 – January 13, 2017) was a Lebanese American conservation scientist. She was a fellow of the

American Institute for Conservation The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) is a national membership organization of conservation professionals, headquartered in Washington D.C. History The AIC first launched in 1972 with only a handful of members. Now it is grown to over 3, ...

and the

International Institute for Conservation The International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) is a global organisation for conservation and restoration professionals with over two thousand members in over fifty countries. IIC seeks to promote the knowledge, ...

Early life and education

Elisabeth West FitzHugh was born on July 30, 1926, in Beirut. She was an undergraduate student in chemistry at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

. After earning her bachelor's degree, she moved to the

UCL Institute of Archaeology UCL's Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of the Social & Historical Sciences Faculty of University College London (UCL) which it joined in 1986 having previously been a school of the University of London. It is currently one o ...

(then

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

), where she earned a master's degree in the Archaeology of Western Asia. During her studies she worked as an assistant curator and librarian at the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...

. She visited the Oriental Institute on an archaeological expedition in October 1950. On returning to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, FitzHugh met with George M. A. Hanfmann, then curator of the

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, to discuss her career. He recommended she speak to

Rutherford John Gettens Rutherford John Gettens (January 17, 1900 – June 17, 1974) was a chemist and pioneering conservation scientist. Born to Daniel and Clara (Rutherford) Gettens, Rutherford John Gettens grew up in Mooers, New York, where he became valedictorian of h ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Career

FitzHugh was appointed to the technical research team at the

Freer Gallery of Art The Freer Gallery of Art is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. focusing on Asian art. The Freer and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and Sac ...

in 1956. She worked alongside Gettens to establish a technical scientific laboratory at the art gallery, creating the protocols for the analysis of materials and pigments. Specifically, she developed the laboratory procedures to better understand the Chinese bronzes. This involved wet chemistry approaches and emission spectroscopy. FitzHugh had access to primitative characterization equipment at the Freer Gallery, including chemical, comparison and metallurgical microscopes. To perform

X-ray diffraction X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...

measurements, she visited the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

. FitzHugh spent her entire career at the Freer Gallery, working as an analytical and conservation scientist. It is thought she was the first woman cultural heritage scientist at the Smithsonian. She soon became an expert in Chinese Jade and bronze, Japanese painting and oriental lacquer. Amongst the many artists' pigments studied by FitzHugh, her work on the chemistry of

Han purple and Han blue Han purple and Han blue (also called Chinese purple and Chinese blue) are synthetic barium copper silicate pigments developed in China and used in ancient and imperial China from the Western Zhou period (1045–771 BC) until the end of the Han ...

were groundbreaking. FitzHugh was interested in the conservation and protection of art. She served as editor of ''International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) Abstracts'', a journal summarizing the abstracts of books, conference proceedings and dissertations on art, archaeology and architecture. She held various roles in the

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) is a national membership organization of conservation professionals, headquartered in Washington D.C. History The AIC first launched in 1972 with only a handful of members. Now it is grown to over 3, ...

, including Chair of Ethics and Standards and eventually President.

Awards and honors

* 1990

R. J. Gettens Award * 1992 Honorary member of the American Institute for Conservation * 2002

of Historic and Artistic Works Forbes Prize * 2016 Honorary fellow of the International Institute for Conservation

Legacy

FitzHugh retired in 1991, but continued to work at the Smithsonian until 2011. She died in 2017 in Mitchellville.

Selected publications

* * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FitzHugh, Elisabeth West 1926 births 2017 deaths People from Beirut Vassar College alumni Alumni of the UCL Institute of Archaeology