Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the Univesity Library, has announced that Theresa Smith and Trinie Thai-Parker are the recipients of this year’s Bryant Fellowships.

Theresa Smith, paper conservator for special collections in the Harvard University Library’s Weissman Preservation Center, received the award for her project, “Historical Bleaching of Ingres Drawings at the Fogg Art Museum.” She explained her project as follows: “The Fogg Art Museum has the largest  collection of drawings by Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867) outside of France. During his lifetime, the gradual adoption of machines for papermaking, the use of lower-quality fibers, and the introduction of acidic sizing caused a decrease in paper quality. Created between 1804 and 1865, the Fogg drawings record this transformation. Damage from light, stains, and foxing have compounded the problem. In the 1950s, several chemical-bleaching methods were employed to treat the drawings. This project examines the possible connections between the current darkened condition of the drawings, their paper manufacture, and previous bleaching treatments.”

Trinie Thai-Parker, reference librarian for foreign, comparative, and international law at the Harvard Law School Library, was also awarded a fellowship. Her project is entitled “The Moody Sisters and Their Contributions to the Harvard Law School Library.” Said Thai-Parker of her work, “This is an oral history project concerning two sisters and former librarians at the Harvard Law School Library: Myrtle A. Moody and Margaret M. Moody. They worked at the library for 38 years, from 1943 to 1981, and played an important role in assisting the library to acquire and make accessible a wide range of legal materials, especially in the areas of foreign and international law. Through such efforts, the HLS Library still maintains its reputation for having one of the largest and finest collections of law in the world. Through interviews with Margaret Moody herself and many other people who worked with her and her sister, I hope to be able to create a more complete portrait of these women and document the contributions that they made to the HLS Library and to law librarianship in general.”

The recipients were chosen by Bryant Fellowship jury members Michael Austin, Annie Jo Cain, Marilyn Morgan, and Ann Robinson. That jury, which was appointed by the Professional Development Committee of the Librarians’ Assembly, recommended two members of Harvard’s library community for Bryant awards.

For more information on the Bryant Fellowship Program, contact Bette Viano, director of human resources in the Harvard University Library, at 5-3650 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or visit http://hul.harvard.edu/resources/bryant.html.