Theresa Fairbanks Harris

Theresa Fairbanks Harris (born 1955) is an American Conservator specializing in works on paper and photographs. She is the senior conservator for works on paper at the Yale Center for British Art and Yale University Art Gallery . . She is also a lecturer in the History of Art Department at Yale University.

Harris is the daughter of the American artist and expert of American arts and antiques, Jonathan Leo Fairbanks, and the granddaughter of the American sculptor, Avard Fairbanks. She was born in 1955 in Ogden, Utah daughter of Louise Fairbanks. She is a twelfth generation descendant of Jonathan Fairbanks founding settler of Dedham of 1637.

Harris is Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Studio Art Summa cum laude, and with distinction in Art History from Yale University. She earned a Masters of Science in Art Conservation with a major in Paper Conservation and minor in Photograph Conservation from a joint program at the Winterthur Museum and University of Delaware Art Conservation Program. She has an Advanced Certificate in Conservation from the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University in Paper Conservation.

Harris has served as a conservator and restorer for a number of national museums and collections including the Yale University Book and Paper Conservation Lab for Sterling and Beinecke Libraries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory and National Museum of American History, and most recently the Yale Center for British Art and Yale University Art Gallery where she is also the instructor for pre-program, conservation program and post-graduate interns. Harris has participated in a number of conservation courses and workshops including programs at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts – National Gallery of Art and the National Conservation Training Center.

Harris lectures frequently on conservation and artists’ materials and techniques and is a member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC), member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the Yale University Conservation Advisory Committee, Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation, co-founder of the New York Conservation Association and board member of the Print Council of America.

Harris served as the co-curator and co- author of Mr.Whatman’s Turkey mill and the Art of Watercolor and Papermaking in eighteenth century England, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT and co-organizer and speaker at Rags to Reams: A Paper History Symposium, Yale Center for British Art.