Marina Gibbons

Marina Gibbons is the Associate Conservator at the Natural History Museum, where she treats natural history specimens as well as cultural heritage objects, and performs testing on new materials proposed for use in exhibit case design. She is a graduate of the dual-Masters conservation program at University College London (MA, MSc.), having previously received an AB in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College. She has previously worked at the Harvard Semitic Museum in Cambridge, MA, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, UK. Her favorite eras are the Late Bronze Age and the Late Triassic Period.

Research areas

Marina has extensively researched the production and conservation of wax anatomical models, which was the subject of her MSc. dissertation as well as the subject of ongoing work tolerated at a safe distance by her roommates. Her MA dissertation evaluated the efficacy of the preventive conservation methods commonly used in comic book stores. Early practical work focused on the conservation of damaged archaeological ivory. Recent work at NHMLAC has included the fabrication of custom mannequins for the History Department’s rotating Hollywood costume exhibit in the “Becoming Los Angeles” gallery, the treatment of rare minerals exhibited by the Mineral Sciences Department at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, and the experimental treatment of a three-dimensional insect fossil for the Invertebrate Paleontology Department.

Publications

Gibbons, M., 2019. “Supporting silicified ‘glass’ insect macrofossils for repair with self-releasing bandages and foam support systems.” Proceedings of the American Institute for Conservation 47th Annual Meeting, May 13-19, 2019. In press.

Gibbons, M., 2016. “Building a magnetic stir plate.” Western Association for Art Conservation Newsletter 38: 14-15.