Allie Alvis (they/them/theirs)
Curator of Special Collections, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Allie Alvis is Curator of Special Collections at the Winterthur Library. They are also a facilitator of the Rare Book School Mellon Fellowship for Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Heritage, working with fellows to produce a podcast, as well as the editor of SHARP News Features, which publishes articles on book history in unexpected places. Allie has formerly worked as a rare book cataloguer for Type Punch Matrix, and as the special collections reference librarian of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. Their research is diverse and far-reaching, with interests in physical patterns of use in books, ephemera, and depictions of rare books in pop culture. Allie has published on topics including the history of rebinding illuminated manuscripts, the reuse of type ornaments in 16th and 17th century England, the work of bookbinders Douglas Cockerell and Son, and the use of arsenical green pigments in bookbinding. They are particularly involved in the study and act of using social media for communicating book history, and maintains popular accounts across various platforms as Book Historia. Allie received MScs in Material Culture & Book History, and Information Management from the Universities of Edinburgh ('15) and Glasgow (16') respectively, and a BA in Linguistics from the University of Kansas ('13).
Stephenie Bailey (she/her/hers)
Manager of Continuing Education and Winterthur Institute, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Stephenie Schwartz Bailey (she/her/hers) engages with professionals, communities, and adult learners to care for and interpret moveable and non-movable artifacts. While beginning her career in museum curatorial positions, a passion for deeply connecting visual and decorative arts to sense of place guided her recent certificate in historic building preservation. As Manager of Continuing Education at Winterthur, Museum, Garden & Library, Stephenie develops public experiences of professional growth and community partnership. Liaising across departments to feature the specialized expertise, unique legacy, and contemporary relevance of Winterthur, Stephenie manages Winterthur Institute, an annual immersive learning journey in the history of American decorative arts, object materiality, and collections stewardship.
Previously, Stephenie was Education Program Manager and Preservation Consultant at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) in Philadelphia, PA, where she developed curricula for programs in the field and taught hands-on workshops in preservation best practices. At CCAHA, Stephenie also spent two years at the bench as conservation technician performing minor conservation repairs and designing and building preservation housings. Ever curious about object materiality and mechanics, Stephenie was curatorial manager at the Stanford University RevsInstitute for Automotive Research and Historical Study in Naples, FL. Her skills in administration and inter-departmental communication were honed while curatorial assistant for American and British Paintings at the National Gallery of Art. Exploring art history and fine arts as a teacher and adjunct professor has been a highlight of her career.
Stephenie currently serves as Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Heritage Commissioner and Board Member of the Nether Providence, PA, Historical Society. She has an MA in art history from The George Washington University and a BA from Beloit College.
Kim Collison
Curator of Exhibitions at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Kim Collison is an independent curator and project manager currently curating At Home at Winterthur, an exhibition opening at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in May 2026. From 2014 to 2025 she worked in the Collections division at Winterthur where she managed the development and installation of Winterthur’s exhibitions and gallery installations. Projects she managed include Treasures on Trial: The Art and Science of Detecting Fakes (2017), Dining by Design (2018), Jacqueline Kennedy and H. F. du Pont: From Winterthur to the White House (2022), Ann Lowe: American Couturier (2023), Transformations: Contemporary Artists at Winterthur (2024), and Almost Unknown, the Afric-American Picture Gallery (2025). Exhibitions she curated or co-curated include Royal Splendor: The Coronation Gown from THE CROWN (2017), Costuming THE CROWN (2019), and Outside In: Nature-inspired Design at Winterthur (2021). She also led cross-departmental teams in updating the design and interpretation in Winterthur’s permanent galleries with an emphasis on telling more diverse and accessible stories in Re-Vision 20/20: Through a Woman’s Lens and Bearing Witness (2020), With Hammer in Hand: The Story of American Craft (2021), and Conversations with the Collection (ongoing). She has written and lectured about many of these exhibition projects and has helped to organize related conferences and programs, including the symposia In the Legacy of Ann Lowe: Contemporary American Fashion (2023) and Looking Back to the Future: Realizing the “Afric-American Picture Gallery,” (2025). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Delaware and a Master of Arts in English and Publishing from Rosemont College.
Paula DeStefano
Museum Collections Registrar, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Paula DeStefano holds an M. A. in History with certification in Museum Studies from the University of Delaware and a B. A. in History from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. She has held collections management positions at the Delaware Art Museum, the Mercer Museum and Fonthill Museum of The Bucks County Historical Society, and the Hagley Museum and Library.
Paula joined the staff at the Winterthur Museum in 2008. She enjoys the challenge of a good research topic and is a proponent of embracing recent technologies to improve collections management workflows. She is a former co-chair of the Curator and Collections Care Committee of the Museum Council of Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley and served on the Collections Committee for the Friends of Auburn Heights Preserve. She is a current member of the Association of the Registrars and Collections Specialists and the Delaware Valley Registrars Network.
Alexandra Deutsch (she/her/hers)
Director of Collections, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Alexandra Deutsch (she/her/hers), a graduate of Vassar College and the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, is the John L. and Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections at the Winterthur Museum. She leads Winterthur’s Collections Division that includes curatorial, registration, exhibitions, interpretation, and programming. Prior to arriving at Winterthur in 2019, she was Vice-President of Collections and Interpretation and Chief Curator at the Maryland Center for History and Culture, formerly the Maryland Historical Society. She began her career at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York and the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont. She went on to be Curator of the Historic Annapolis Foundation where, from 2003 to 2009, she led the refurnishing plan of the 1765 William Paca House and Gardens.
Her tenure at the Maryland Center for History and Culture was distinguished by nationally recognized exhibitions that included In Full Glory Reflected: Maryland and the War of 1812, Woman of Two Worlds: Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte and Her Quest for an Imperial Legacy, and Spectrum of Fashion. From 2010 until 2019, she worked to establish the Fashion Archives, now named the Barbara P. Katz Fashion Archives at the Maryland Center for History and Culture. Since arriving at Winterthur, she has spearheaded a re-envisioning of the museum’s gallery building and led multiple exhibitions, including Outside In: Nature-inspired Design at Winterthur (2020) and Jacqueline Kennedy and Henry Francis du Pont: From Winterthur to the White House (2022).
Her publications include Ann Lowe, American Couturier (2023), Spectrum of Fashion (2019), Structure and Perspective: David Brewster Explores Maryland’s Social Landscape (2017) and Woman of Two Worlds: Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte (2016). She has written and lectured about diverse topics in American material culture throughout her career with a particular emphasis on women's fashion history.
William Donnelly (he/him/his)
Associative Preventive Conservator, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, and Affiliated Associate Professor at the University of Delaware
William Donnelly (he/him/his) is Associate Preventive Conservator at Winterthur Museum, Library & Garden, and an Affiliated Assistant Professor in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC). After receiving his BFA from the University of Delaware, he began his career in museums as an exhibits preparator. Since that time, he’s specialized in packing and shipping of objects, as well as mount making for textiles and internal soft supports for leather objects. In 2017 he received his MA in Preventive Conservation from Northumbria University, New Castle Upon Tyne, UK. Since receiving his MA, William transitioned into a leadership role within preventive conservation at Winterthur, guiding the team of professionals who care for the collection. He advocates for the collection as a partner in interdepartmental collaborations that are focused on driving visitation, and serves as member of a team of staff who are updating staff training curricula in areas of object handling and collections emergency preparedness. William is currently working on a Museum Studies Certificate from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), Santa Fe, NM. The goal of this work is to gain a better understanding for the care of Indigenous objects and to be a better community partner to Indigenous people.
William Gerdinger
Fellow, Winterthur Program in American Material Culture
Born in Toledo, Ohio, William Gerhardinger spent formative time lost among machines at the Henry Ford Museum, learning carpentry from his uncle who is missing part of a finger, and taking apart anything he could get his hands on. At Kenyon College he integrated his academic interests with his passion for handicraft by majoring in the history of science and technology. A proponent of being a historian practitioner, he built his own automaton while completing an honors thesis on nineteenth-century French automata. After a productive internship in the company of automata and music boxes at the Morris Museum, William spent the next four months at a trade school learning clockmaking. Working as a professional clockmaker, he researches and documents his repairs on his blog, honing his historical knowledge and communication skills. He recently completed building a mechanical calculator by hand based on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century machines, which allowed him to see a fuller picture of the labor and knowledge materialized in such objects. As a Fellow in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, he continues to unite his interests in both the arts of the hand and the arts of the mind by studying the relationships between people and their objects.
Brock Jobe
Professor Emeritus of American Decorative Arts, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Brock Jobe earned his master’s degree from the Winterthur material culture program and went on to hold positions at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts; Colonial Williamsburg, where he was curator of exhibition buildings; and Historic New England Inc., where he was chief curator. He then returned to Winterthur, where he was Deputy Director of Collections, Conservation and Interpretation before assuming the position of Professor of American decorative arts in 2000.
He is the co-author of New England Furniture: The Colonial Era and oversaw the major publications Portsmouth Furniture: Masterworks from the New Hampshire Seacoast and Harbor & Home: Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710-1850. Working with three students, Jobe curated a 2012-13 exhibit at Winterthur Museum that highlighted its six decades of working with University Delaware to educate graduate students in material culture and art conservation.
Sarah Johnson
Inventory Specialist & Registration Assistant, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Sarah grew up in Chester County, PA, where her passion and interest in art history began. She attended Lebanon Valley College for her B.A. in Studio Art & Art History, working with the campus art gallery all four years. There, she gained experience in curatorial practice, exhibition planning and development, and object handling, furthering her interest in a museum career. After LVC, Sarah worked as a curatorial intern at the Brandywine River Museum of Art, and later worked there in visitor services. Sarah successfully completed her MA in Museum Studies at Johns Hopkins University in 2021, and moved to York, PA for a position as an inventory assistant at the York County History Center. While there, she worked to inventory the 90,000-object collection for the first time in the organization’s history, while also helping prepare for the opening of a new museum site. As projects were ending in York, Sarah happily accepted a position as the inventory specialist & registration assistant at Winterthur in November 2022.
It has always been a dream of hers to work at Winterthur, growing up visiting the Enchanted Garden and the incredible house left quite an impression. In her time working here so far, Sarah has continued the ongoing inventory of collections, conducts condition reports on incoming and outgoing objects, assists with moving objects for study and display, and helps to organize and maintain the collection.
Tyler Johnson
Assistant Manager, Estate Tour Programs at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
As Assistant Manager of Estate Tour Programs at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Tyler is responsible for curated experiences that explore the estate’s history, architecture, and collections. Tyler Johnson has worked at Winterthur for over eight years and attended Winterthur Institute in 2019. He has fond memories of the program. With a deep passion for history and nature, he refers to Winterthur estate as a treasure trove that never ends.
Lara Kaplan (she/her/hers)
Conservator of Objects, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, and Affiliated Associate Professor at the University of Delaware
Lara (she/her/hers) received her M.S. in Art Conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC) in 2003, majoring in objects conservation. To foster an interest in conserving indigenous cultural materials, she interned in Sitka, Alaska at the Sheldon Jackson Museum, and in Tucson, Arizona at the Arizona State Museum and the National Park Service Western Archaeological and Conservation Center. She then held a post-graduate Mellon Fellowship at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. the year their museum building opened on the National Mall.
Lara opened a private conservation business in 2005, working with institutions and private clients in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. Conservation education has also been a key part of her work. In addition to leading courses and guest lecturing at universities in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area, she also served as a long-time affiliated faculty member at WUDPAC, supervising student projects and teaching advanced seminars on specialized topics. Since 2017, she has led the organic objects portion of the first-year curriculum.
Lara joined the staff at Winterthur Museum in 2019, where she cares for collection objects and continues to contribute to teaching at WUDPAC. In both roles, Lara emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and issues of diversity and inclusion. Her research interests include the conservation and analysis of organic materials, especially skin and leather, the identification and treatment of plastics, and ethical considerations in the conservation of non-traditional collections.
With fellow conservators Ellen Carrlee and Caitlin Mahony, Lara is currently coediting a new textbook, Caring for Plant Based Material Culture: A Conservation Handbook, to be published by Routledge in 2026.
Kedra Kearis, PhD (she/her/hers)
Associate Curator of Art and Visual Culture, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Kedra Kearis (she/her/hers) is Associate Curator of Art and Visual Culture and a faculty member in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture.
She oversees the collections of paintings and works on paper, as well as sculpture, and is a faculty member in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware. Kedra holds a PhD in Art History, an MA in Literature, and a BA in French Language and Literature. Her work examines the intersections of performance, identity, and modernization in the material culture of the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. By investigating a wide range of media–furniture, fashion, photography, and painting–especially portraits–her work seeks to reveal the self-fashioning concerns of artists and patrons. Kedra joined the curatorial department at Winterthur in June of 2023.
Formerly a research writer and senior faculty member at The Barnes Foundation, she has also taught in the Art History departments at Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University and St. Joseph’s University. Kedra has received grants and fellowships in support of her research from the Association of Historians of American Art, New York Historical, The Preservation Society of Newport County, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, and the Center for Global Literacy and Cultural Studies at Michigan State University.
Kedra has curated the paintings feature now in the first-floor galleries entitled “The Peale Painters: Global Perspectives in the Winterthur Collection.”
Joshua W. Lane
Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Curator of Furniture, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Josh Lane received his BA from Amherst College and MPhil from Yale University in American Studies and taught undergraduate courses focusing on American colonial history and material culture before transitioning to the museum field. He served as Curator of the Stamford Historical Society in Stamford, Connecticut, and jointly as Curator of Furniture and Curator of Academic Programs at Historic Deerfield, in the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts. In 2014 he joined the curatorial team at Winterthur Museum as Lois F. and Henry S. McNeil Curator of Furniture.
Steve Latta
Contributing Editor, Fine Woodworking magazine
Steve Latta has spent 40 years making both contemporary and traditional furniture while teaching woodworking at Thaddeus Stevens College in Lancaster, PA. He is a contributing editor to Fine Woodworking magazine and has released several videos on inlay and furniture construction. He has lectured at Colonial Williamsburg, The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, The American Decorative Arts Forum and Winterthur Museum as well as numerous other schools and guilds. Steve is an active member with the Furniture Society, The Society of American Period Furniture Makers and the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. He lives with his wife, Elizabeth, in rural, southeastern Pennsylvania.
Sarah Lewis
Librarian for Collections Management, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Sarah A. Lewis is the Librarian for Collections Management. She has a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Management from Goldey-Beacom College, and a MLIS with a concentration in Archive Studies from Drexel University. Sarah started her library career at Winterthur twelve years ago as a Library Technician and has served in several roles over the years. Her current role focuses on the care of the collections and stack maintenance, and she has a particular research interest in the business of books. Along with Winterthur Institute, Sarah takes part in Summer Institute and Library Block. In addition to her work at the Winterthur Library, Sarah also works part-time at the Bear Public Library in Bear, Delaware.
Meg Lippincott
Human Resources Manager, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Meg Lippincott has been the Human Resources Manager at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library for 5 years. Prior to that she spent 10 years in human resources, talent development, and operations management in the Hospitality industry. She obtained her Master's of Social Work in 2009, and applies that perspective to her work in human resources on a daily basis.
Vivian Makos
Assistant Registrar, Collections, Management System (CMS), Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library
As a child, Viv's parents used to make the long drive up to Chicago to take her and her brother see the museums. It was during these visits that she discovered her love for art and art history. To her, gallery spaces seemed to be a manifestation of multicultural convergences few other institutions could match. This love stayed with her to adulthood, as a Grinnell College alum with a BA in Classics and Art History. Now, as the Assistant Registrar for Winterthur Museum, Library & Estate, she happily works behind the scenes to develop the same experiences she had as a child for the public.
Beth Parker Miller (she/her/hers)
Director of Registration, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Beth Parker Miller’s (she/her/hers) interest in cultural heritage is rooted in her experience living in India and visiting international cultural attractions as a child. While pursuing her BA in English and German at Manchester University (Indiana), Beth studied in Marburg, Germany her junior year. She completed her MA in history, with a concentration in archival and historical administration, at Wright State University (Dayton, Ohio). For her graduate research project, she documented the extant Shaker-related architecture of the White Water (Ohio) Shaker community. After graduate school, she served as Associate Curator and Registrar at Hancock Shaker Village and then as Registrar at Hagley Museum and Library. Beth joined the Winterthur Registration Department in 2004 and has led the department since 2008.
At Winterthur in 2004-2005, Beth led a collections inventory and collaborated with colleagues on effecting the deaccession and transfer of Winterthur’s Odessa holdings to the Historic Houses of Odessa. From 2010-2012, she initiated and managed a two-year, IMLS grant-funded, comprehensive, museum collections inventory. In 2013, she served as the collection’s liaison for the site-wide security and fire-suppression upgrade. Between 2017-2021, Beth helped lead a Winterthur team charged with developing an institution-wide storage solution, which was partially funded by the NEH and IMLS.
Beth serves on the collections committees of Hancock Shaker Village and the Marshall Steam Museum (Delaware). She is a contributing author to To Give and To Receive: A Handbook of Gifts and Donations for Museums and Donors (AAM, 2011; 2nd ed. 2020), The Shakers of White Water, Ohio, 1823-1916 (Richard W. Couper Press, 2014), and Museum Registration Methods, 6th ed. (AAM, 2010). Beth is a member of the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists, and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums.
Matthew E. Monk
Linda Eaton Associate Curator of Textiles, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Matthew E. Monk is the Linda Eaton Associate Curator of Textiles. He is finishing his PhD in the History of American Civilization at the University of Delaware. His forthcoming dissertation, “A Useable Past: Appalachian Craft Revival and the Creation of American Identity, 1893-1940,” looks at the creation and promotion of a monocultural Appalachian identity using handicraft. Matthew is from Southwest Virginia and comes from a long line of craftspeople in the region. He spins, dyes, weaves, knits, crochets, and quilts when he is able. With a BA in History and Medieval and Renaissance Studies from the University of Tennessee, an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto, and a MA in Decorative Arts and Design History from George Washington University-Smithsonian, Matthew brings a holistic and global approach to the study of textiles in America. He has held fellowships at and worked with numerous institutions around the country including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, U.S. Capitol, MFA-Boston, Southern Highland Craft Guild, Jenrette Foundation, Decorative Arts Trust, and many more.
Karissa Muratore
Assistant Library Materials Conservator, Affiliated Assistant Professor WUDPAC, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Karissa attained an MS from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (2020) as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Library and Archive Conservation. During her studies she had the privilege of being an intern or fellow at The American Philosophical Society, the Indiana Historical Society, the University of Michigan Libraries, the Library of Congress, and Northwestern University Libraries. Most recently, she helped to define the new Preventive Conservation Librarian role at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, where she updated and executed their environmental monitoring program, developed, and piloted their Collection Care Program, liaised with the many departmental libraries, and treated distinctive collection materials. In addition to her contributions to other publications and presentations, Karissa is the lead author of the paper “Investigating the Effects of Rigid Polysaccharide Gels on Several Paper Sizings.” Karissa is also a founding member of the endowed Vicki Cassman Undergraduate Award in Art Conservation and an active participant in the international Bibliotoxicology Working Group—investigating toxic pigments in book materials.
Elizabeth Palms
Curatorial Fellow, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Elizabeth Palms graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in History from the College of William & Mary, where she also completed the NIAHD Collegiate Program in Early American History, Material Culture, and Museum Studies. In Virginia, she was an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Curatorial Intern for Works on Paper at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and worked for over two years on a team documenting, and researching Eyre Hall, an 18th-century home on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. She has an article and various architectural drawings in the resulting publication, The Material World of Eyre Hall: Four Centuries of Chesapeake History.
Continuing to cultivate her love of the material past, Elizabeth pursued her MA in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, graduating in 2020. She then spent two years at the Dallas Museum of Art in the Decorative Arts and Design curatorial department. At the DMA, in addition to researching the permanent decorative arts collection, she worked on two exhibitions, Curbed Vanity: A Contemporary Foil by Chris Schank and Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity. During the summer of 2021, she did fieldwork as a Decorative Arts of the Gulf South Fellow with the Historic New Orleans Collection. In 2020, she returned to Winterthur as Robert & Elizabeth Owens Curatorial Fellow. In this position, she works for all five of Winterthur’s curators on a variety of collections projects. She has done extensive research on the 1880 Wedgwood Longfellow jug in the Winterthur Collection and has lectured on the subject for the Transferware Collectors Club and for the 2023 American Ceramic Circle Symposium.
Seth E. Rockman
George L. Littlefield Professor of American History and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Brown University
Seth Rockman is the George L. Littlefield Professor of American History and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Brown University, and a historian of the United States focusing on the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. His research unfolds at the intersection of slavery studies, labor history, material culture studies, and the history of capitalism. Rockman’s newest book, Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery, was published by University of Chicago Press in Fall 2024 and named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History.
At Brown, Rockman sits on the faculty advisory board of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and leads their Slavery and Finance research cluster. Rockman is a faculty affiliate of the William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance and regularly teaches a course on slavery and capitalism for the IE-Brown Executive MBA program.
Rockman’s teaching includes a graduate seminar on the global history of capitalism, as well as undergraduate lecture courses on the American Revolution and the Early Republic United States and a “Textile History of Atlantic Slavery” as a seminar for students in their first semester of college.
Rockman received a BA from Columbia University and completed his PhD at UC-Davis. After several years on the faculty of Occidental College in Los Angeles, Rockman joined the Brown History Department in 2004.
Matthew Singer
Principal, Values in Things/Matt Singer Art Services LLC
Matt Singer has more than 30 years of experience as both an on-staff and independent curator, writer, and educator based in Philadelphia. He explores and celebrates American fine, decorative, folk, and Outsider/Self-Taught art, and has a particular passion for identifying and highlighting how these seemingly distinct creative spheres influence and inspire one another. He has long contributed articles and essays to exhibition catalogues, general readership magazines, scholarly journals, and online forums.
Recently, Matt earned certification and started a practice as an appraiser of American fine and decorative arts. He has graduate and doctoral degrees in American Studies from Pennsylvania State University, with concentrations in material culture and ethnic and religious studies. Matt further developed his knowledge and honed his skills in American material culture as a member of Winterthur Institute’s 2025 cohort.
Chris Strand
Executive Director & CEO, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Chris Strand is the Charles F. Montgomery Director and CEO of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. In his former role as the Brown Harrington Director of Garden & Estate at Winterthur Chris was a steward of the garden and wider estate, including the buildings, roads, natural areas, and cultivated historic landscape. Chris Strand’s work experience in museums and public horticulture include curating exhibitions – both indoors and outdoors – highlighting history and the historic landscape; working to develop programs and initiatives at multiple cultural institutions including the Denver Botanic Gardens, Callaway Gardens, and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University; and spearheading a county-wide horticulture program as Director of Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia. Chris is a graduate of the Longwood Program and has a BA degree in Biology from the University of Colorado, having completed studies in molecular biology and evolutionary plant ecology.
Melissa Tedone, PhD, MSIS (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor in the University of Delaware Department of Art Conservation and Associate Director of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC).
Melissa Tedone, PhD, MSIS, is Assistant Professor in the University of Delaware Department of Art Conservation and Associate Director of the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC). Prior to her current position, Melissa served as Lab Head for Library Materials Conservation at Winterthur Museum, Garden, & Library, and WUDPAC Affiliated Associate Professor for eight years. She was the Library & Archives Conservator at Iowa State University of Science & Technology from 2009-2015.
Melissa serves on the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Library Alliance Board of Directors as an appointed member. In this role, Melissa serves as PI and program co-coordinator for the HBCU Library Alliance Preservation Internship Program.
As the lead conservator of the Poison Book Project, Melissa researches the use of heavy metals in mass-produced, nineteenth-century Euro-American bookbinding. As founding co-chair of the Bibliotoxicology Working Group (BibTox), she facilitates an international cohort of conservators, conservation scientists, librarians, and health and safety professionals who are exploring safer practices for the identification and management of library collections with potentially toxic components.
Melissa's additional research interests include the industrialization of the Euro-American book more broadly; writing media and implements of the eighteenth to early twentieth century; historical paper decorating techniques; and exploring multicultural education models as a means of advancing diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in conservation education.
Melissa earned a doctorate in Slavic literary history at Yale University and an MSIS with Certificate of Advanced Study in the Conservation of Library and Archives Materials at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Information. Melissa is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), an organization she has supported in many volunteer roles over the years, including chairing the Sustainability Committee and the Book & Paper Group.
Mack Truax
Coordinator of Preventive Care and Lighting Design, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Mack Truax is the Coordinator of Preventive Care and Lighting Design at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and responsible for the safe and attractive lighting of collection objects in the historic house and museum galleries. His work includes maintaining H.F. du Pont’s philosophy of lighting, while transitioning into the contemporary world of LED’s. He looks forward to each lighting challenge, as exhibitions and architectural features can change frequently. Mack must maintain a balance between adhering to conservation best practices and the artistic aesthetics desired for an installation, to showcase objects to best advantage and guest expectation. Mack enjoys sharing with students the details of lighting at Winterthur.
Lindsey currently works at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library as a Conservation Assistant, building exhibition displays for paper-based materials and constructing sustainable housings for a variety of paper and library objects.
Natasha Vadas (she/her/hers)
Horticulture Staff, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Natasha Vadas has been a member of the Horticulture Staff at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library for four years. Her career in horticulture has given her opportunity to work at various gardens in the region, including the Morris Arboretum and Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Meadowbrook Farms, where she gained knowledge and skills to pursue an artistic outlook on the field of design and horticulture. Natasha enjoys using time outdoors to connect with nature and find ways to meld our built environment with the natural environment that we all call home.
Jennifer Vess
Winterthur Archivist, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Jennifer Vess is the Winterthur Archivist, responsible for the institutional records of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library as well as the personal papers of Henry Francis du Pont and several other members of the du Pont family. Jennifer studied history and writing at the (University of Maryland Baltimore County and history and museum studies at the University of Delaware. She began her career in museum education and interpretation at sites as varied as the Historic Ships of Baltimore and Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park before focusing on collections management and archives. She has worked in the Special Collections at the University of Delaware and as archivist at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, and the archives of the Redemptorists, before coming to Winterthur.
Ann Wagner (she/her/hers)
Curator of Decorative Arts, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library
Ann K. Wagner (she/her/hers), curator of decorative arts, is responsible for approximately 20,000 objects of silver, metalware, and related composite materials such as lighting, firearms, and animal organics at Winterthur Museum in Delaware. She joined the curatorial staff in 2004 following her MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. Previously she supported the department of European and American decorative arts at the Seattle Art Museum following her MA in Art History from the University of Washington. At Winterthur, Ms. Wagner researches and interprets decorative arts and material culture through exhibitions, publications, workshops, webinars, and classes. She is an affiliated professor with the University of Delaware and teaches in both Winterthur graduate programs.
Brandy Watts
Director, Winterthur Library
Brandy Watts serves as the Director of Winterthur Library. She draws on fifteen years of experience working with specialized research libraries, archives, and natural history collections, including The William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, The LuEsther T. Mertz Library, The California Botanic Garden Herbarium and Library, the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden Library, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas Library, and the Alaska Resources Library & Information Services. Brandy has been instrumental to a number of National Science Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded projects such as Global Plants Initiative, The Plants of the Caribbean, Engaging Our Future to Preserve Our Past; Collections in Support of Biological Research, Advancing the Extended Specimen Network: Curating and Digitizing the Sherwin Carlquist Collection as well as served as Principal Investigator on both federal and state grants. In 2017, she published The Field Photographs of Alain H. Liogier; Plants of Hispaniola, Dominican Republic,1968-1969 through New York Botanical Garden Press.