Staff Profile
Conservator of Paintings and Head of Paintings Lab
kate_smith@harvard.edu / 617-496-1901
M.A., Buffalo State College
B.A., Smith College
Kate Smith studies and preserves objects in the museums’ paintings collection, from ancient Roman fresco fragments to 20th-century oil paintings. She specializes in the technical examination of paintings using radiography, infrared reflectography, and luminescence imaging to investigate artists’ materials and techniques. With her Straus Center colleagues, Smith teaches conservation-focused courses at Harvard, including HAA 101: The Making of Art and Artifacts: History, Material and Technique; HAA 206: Science and the Practice of Art History; and the Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art (SITSA).
Recent Publications
“Copley’s Working Practice.” In The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820, ed. Ethan Lasser, 224–35. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Art Museums, 2017.