Margaret Little
Objects Conservator
and Adjunct Assistant Professor
Margaret received her B.A. degree in Anthropology from the University of Illinois Chicago in 1973, specializing in archaeology. After graduation she held secretarial and administrative positions in both the academic and private sectors before deciding to pursue a career in conservation. Prior to admission to the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, she volunteered for private textile and object conservators in Chicago, and with the objects conservators at the Milwaukee Public Museum. While a student at Winterthur summer work projects took her to Chile to conserve archaeological basketry, and to the Pacific Regional Conservation Center in Hawaii to assist in rehousing and conserving ethnographic objects from the Bishop Museum’s collection. Her third year internship was spent at the Conservation Laboratories of the York Archaeological Trust in England where she participated in a wide range of archaeological conservation activities. She received her M.S. degree in art conservation in 1988.
After graduation Margaret accepted a position as assistant conservator at the Milwaukee Public Museum, a museum of human and natural history. The primary focus of her work there was conservation of collections for loan and exhibit. She also worked on many conservation projects involving the Museum’s varied ethnographic collections, and advised curators and collection managers on preservation of the natural history collections.
In 1992 Margaret returned to Winterthur Museum to work in the Objects Laboratory, where she continues to work on exhibit and loan projects. In addition to her work at the Museum, she is an adjunct assistant professor in the Art Conservation Program.