Butler, Marigene H.

Marigene Butler was an art conservator, with a specialty in paintings conservation. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1953. She trained in the conservation department of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University under Elizabeth H. Jones, and later, she did further paintings conservation training under Alfred Jakstas at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). While at the AIC, she acquired an interest in the use of polarized light microscopy and developed techniques for using it to study painting pigments. In 1973, Mrs. Butler became director of the conservation laboratory of the Intermuseum Conservation Association, based in Oberlin, Ohio. In 1978, she became head of the conservation department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, from which she retired in 1997. She was active in a number of professional organizations and gave a number of lectures on conservation.