About me
Renée Wolcott is Head of Conservation at the American Philosophical Society, where she also examines the collections for evidence of past conservation and restoration practices. While a high-school interest survey listed “book restorer” as the top match for Wolcott’s skills and interests, she disregarded this advice for many years, during which she pursued a career as a journalist, editor, and public relations specialist. Writing about science discoveries at a local museum piqued her interest in the preservation field, and her long-standing appreciation of books as vehicles for transmitting knowledge led her to pursue a new career as a book conservator. Prior to joining the APS, Wolcott served as book conservator at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, editor of the Book and Paper Group Annual of the American Institute for Conservation, and adjunct professor in the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware. In addition to her book conservation work for the APS, she has curated an exhibition entitled Conservation and the Peale-Sellers Family Collection and produced two volumes for the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society as editor or author: Art, Science, Invention: Conservation and the Peale-Sellers Family (vol. 108, pt.1, 2019) and Preserving Useful Knowledge: A History of Collections Care at the APS Library (vol. 111, pt. 1, 2022). She is currently writing a novel about the conservation of a moldy diary, guerrilla museum interpretation, and the restoration of broken relationships.
