Morgan W. Phillips

Who is Morgan W. Phillips?

Morgan W. Phillips was an American founder of the field of architectural conservation. He is credited with coining the term "architectural conservation" in the early 1970s and was among the first to call himself an architectural conservator. Phillips worked for most of his career at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in Boston, now Historic New England, and the organization's Conservation Center was largely built around his research and that of his apprentices.

Phillips pioneered a number of techniques that would subsequently become standard in the field, including the microscopic examination of historic paint layers, the use of epoxies for wood repairs, and the acrylic consolidation of fragile historic material. He and Andy Ladygo perfected an acrylic injection technique for re-attaching historic plaster walls and ceilings to wooden laths. His contributions to historic paint analysis ranged from developing the technique of 'cratering' using sandpaper, to the microscopic evaluation of paint cross-sections in situ and in the laboratory, to techniques meant to reverse the natural yellowing of linseed oil and thus reveal the 'true' colors of historic paints. Phillips was also among the first to investigate the properties of historic mortars, convening a landmark conference on the subject in Boston in 1973.