Jennifer Hein began her study of historic textiles by learning weave construction methods at Ohio State then studied computer weaving on the Compu Dobby Loom at Montclair, NJ. She studied historic textile construction at Ohio State, Montclair, and FIT. She studied museum examples during her internship at the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian in NYC under Milton Sonday & Gillian Bull.

She completed textile history classes at the Folk Art Institute in NY and the Fashion Institute of Technology / FIT under Betty Kirke, who had been a conservator for the MET & Brooklyn Museum of Art. Jennifer completed a Museum Studies degree at F.I.T. in the Curatorial and Conservation Studies of Textiles & Costume with classes under Richard Martin and Harold Koda, now the MET Costume Director.

INDIANA 1990-present
She then moved to the Midwest and worked for 6 years as a textile conservator & a preservation storage specialist for the State of Indiana. The last ten years, Jennifer has completed 30 conservation surveys for Historic Sites in the Midwest for the IMLS - CAP Smithsonian Grant program and continued to treat special historic textiles.

IWM
She has been the Flag consultant for the Indiana War Memorial collection since 1993. The most unusual treatment was for Lawrence County Courthouse where she conserved their National Civil War flag in public view. Her most noted costume conservation work was President Benjamin Harrison’s wife & daughters clothing. conservatour@msn.com