A death

Elizabeth Martin 1947 - 2003

It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Liz
Martin, Senior Photographic Conservator at the Victoria and Albert
Museum. London.

Elizabeth Martin, Senior Conservator of Photographs, known to
everyone as Liz, passed away suddenly at home on the 13th September.

Liz studied Graphic Design in Bath and went on to take a Teacher's
Diploma before teaching art and design for several years.

In 1976 Liz joined the V&A's Conservation Department as a paper
conservator. She appreciated quickly that a new field was opening up
and in the late 1970s and early 1980s she applied herself to the
study of photographic materials. In 1982 Liz became the first
specialist photographic conservator in any of the UK's national
museums. The following year she contributed an essay on photographic
conservation to the V&A's book, A Guide to early Photographic
Processes. Liz soon built up an international reputation as a
leading expert in the field of photographic conservation and in 1988
her immensely readable book Collecting and Preserving Old
Photographs was published. For several years Liz was actively
involved with the ICOM-CC Photographic Records Working Group,
helping to organise a number of the group's meetings. In the early
1990s Liz's important research work on nineteenth century albumen
prints by Clementina, Lady Hawarden was published in several
journals. This work showed that the albumen prints were getting
darker even whilst off display, highlighting the need for
cold-storage systems.

Liz put her teaching skills to good effect, passing on her knowledge
to numerous students--she was in constant demand to take on fresh
interns. Liz also taught conservation at the Academy of Fine Art in
Stuttgart and at Camberwell School of Art and was due to go to
Stuttgart again this December to give a series of lectures.

Liz had an enviable selection of shoes and an equally colourful
dismissal of jargon.

She was erudite and witty with an uncanny ability to see to the
heart of the problem be it personal or professional.  Liz had a
wonderfully quirky collection of objects * little gifts that
undoubtedly reminded her of people and places she had encountered
along the way. She also shared her love of worn and musty paperback
crime novels with friends around the museum.

We all know her son, Rupert, very well--an indication of  how
incredibly proud she was of him. Our thoughts and condolences go out
to Rupert.

Liz was a dear colleague and friend and will be sadly missed. Liz
was Liz--irreplaceable.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:37
                 Distributed: Monday, October 27, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-17-37-001
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