Gretchen Guidess is the Conservator of Textiles for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. She was the Associate Conservator of Objects & Textiles at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Williamstown, MA. She graduated from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, completing a M.Sc. in textile conservation with a concentration in preventive conservation studies. As part of her third year curriculum she completed internships at the New York State Bureau of Historic Sites/Peebles Island Resource Center, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Canadian Conservation Institute. Following graduation she was the 2010 - 2012 Mellon Fellow at Historic New England.