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Lauren Elizabeth Savage (née Upper) FSA, FRHistS is a British, American and German art historian, bibliographer, curator, and printer specialising in western late medieval and early modern printing practices. She is a leading authority on how information was printed 1400–1600, especially in Europe and especially in colour.

As of 2024, she serves at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, as Senior Lecturer in Book History and Communications, Head of Academic Research Engagement at Senate House Library, and module leader for the London Rare Books School.

Education

A National Merit Scholar, Savage took a BA in Art History and Literature from the University Professors Program, Boston University, where she studied with Saul Bellow, Geoffrey Hill and Rosanna Warren, in 2003. Following a certificate in French Language and Culture from the Sorbonne, she took an MA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, supervised by Joseph Koerner, in 2005. After working at the Warburg Institute, she took a PhD at King’s College, Cambridge, supervised by Jean Michel Massing, in 2013.

Career

While completing her PhD, Savage was a keyholder to the rare book vaults at Cambridge University Library as Munby Fellow in Bibliography. As a postdoc, her work at the John Rylands Research Institute, University of Manchester, was highlighted in Nature, and she then held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, Faculty of English, Cambridge University with a Postdoctoral By-fellowship, Churchill College, Cambridge.

In 2016, she joined the School of Advanced Study, University of London, the “UK’s national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities.” She is currently Senior Lecturer in Book History and Communications, Head of Academic Research Engagement at Senate House Library, and module leader for the London Rare Books School. She had held honorary affiliations at the Warburg Institute (2013–2014); History of Art, Cambridge University (2013–2018); and Centre for the Study of the Book, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University (2020–present).

Savage co-founded and directed the Printing Colour Project (2009–2018), which supported £600,000 in grant income and blockbuster exhibitions that engaged 350,000 members of the public in the history of colour printing in the west. For the Printing Historical Society, she serves on the Grants & Prizes (2016–present) and Publications Committees (2017-present). For the Association of Print Scholars, she was a founding jury member of the Grants Program (2017–2019) and serves on the Grants Committee (2023–2024).

Awards and prizes

Her research awards include the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015) and British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (2017).  She was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Historical Society in 2019.

Notable awards and prizes for her publications include:

• 2014 New Scholar award, Bibliographical Society of America, Elizabeth Upper, “Red Frisket Sheets, c. 1490–1700: The Earliest Artefacts of Colour Printing in the West”, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 108/4 (Dec 2014): 477–522
• 2014 Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship, American Printing History Association, for The Earliest Artifacts of Color Printing: Early Modern Frisket Sheets, c.1490-c.1620.
• 2016 Wolfgang Ratjen Prize “for distinguished research in the field of graphic arts” from Conivncta Florescit/Germany’s Central Institute for Art History
• 2016 International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Book Awards Honourable mention for Ad Stijnman/Elizabeth Savage, eds. Printing Colour 1400–1700: History, Techniques, Functions and Receptions (Brill, 2015
• 2020 Schulman and Bullard Article Prize, Association of Print Scholars “Identifying Hans Baldung Grien’s Colour Printer, c.1511–12,” Burlington Magazine 161 (October 2019): 830–839
• Proceedings of the British Academy publication award: Margaret Morgan Grasselli/Elizabeth Savage, eds. Printing Colour 1700–1830: Histories, Techniques, Functions and Receptions, Proceedings of the British Academy (Oxford University Press, in press for 2024)
• Proceedings of the British Academy publication award: Elizabeth Savage/Femke Speelberg, eds. Printing Things: Blocks, Plates, and Other Objects that Printed, 1400–1900 (Oxford University Press, under contract)

Exhibitions

Savage collaborates with library and museum collections. She has curated exhibitions at Cambridge University Library (2013) and the British Museum (2015). She has contributed to others, including at Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf (2017), Groeningemuseum (2018), the Louvre (2019), and Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (2019).

Public talks

As of September 2023, Savage has delivered about 80 invited talks, public lectures, and keynotes in a dozen countries, including:

• Frederik Muller Annual Lecture in Book History, University of Amsterdam, 2021
• Keynote, annual meeting of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), 2022
• Relaunch lecture, Hanes Lecture Series in Bibliography, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2022

References

1. ^ "Dr Elizabeth Savage | University of London". research.london.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
2. Savage, Elizabeth, and University of Cambridge. Department of History of Art, degree granting institution. Printing colour in the age of Durer 'Chiaroscuro' woodcuts of the German-speaking lands, 1487-ca. 1600 (2013): n. pag. Print.
3. Parmenter, E. (2023-09-21). "Past Munby Fellows". www.lib.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
4. Pormann, Peter E. (September 2015). "Interdisciplinarity: Inside Manchester's 'arts lab'". Nature. 525 (7569): 318–319. Bibcode:2015Natur.525..318P. doi:10.1038/525318a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 26381971.
5. Grove, M. L. R. (2016-06-09). "The Department would like to congratulate Dr Elizabeth Savage (née Upper) who has been awarded the Wolfgang Ratjen Award for distinguished research in the field of graphic arts". www.hoart.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
6. "The Printing Colour Project – Writing Colour into the History of Printing in the West, 1400–1920". Retrieved 2024-02-06.
7. "BA Rising Star Engagement Awards 2017". The British Academy. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
8. "Past Annual Meetings". The Bibliographical Society of America. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
9. Upper, Elizabeth (December 2014). "Red Frisket Sheets, ca. 1490–1700: The Earliest Artifacts of Color Printing in the West". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 108 (4): 477–522. doi:10.1086/681568. ISSN 0006-128X. S2CID 191714610.
10. Siegel, Jane Rodgers (2014-01-28). "L. Elizabeth Upper Awarded the 2014 Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship". American Printing History Association. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
11. "Wolfgang-Ratjen-Preis — Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte". www.zikg.eu. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
12. Grove, M. L. R. (2016-11-10). "Printing Colour 1400-1700, edited by Ad Stijnman and Elizabeth Savage, has been cited for an honourable mention in the 2016 International Fine Print Dealers (IFPDA) Book Award". www.hoart.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
13. "Printing Colour 1400-1700: History, Techniques, Functions and Receptions", Printing Colour 1400-1700, Brill, 2015-08-14, ISBN 978-90-04-29011-2, retrieved 2024-03-27
14. "2020 Schulman and Bullard Article Prize Awarded to Elizabeth Savage : Association of Print Scholars". printscholars.org. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
15. "October 2019, #1399 – Vol 161 | − The Burlington Magazine". www.burlington.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
16. "EXHIBITIONS", Endowments of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 437–444, 2009-07-20, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511693571.010, ISBN 978-1-108-00306-3, retrieved 2024-02-06
17. "Earliest attempts at colour printing in the West on display for the first time". The British Academy. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
18. Séverine Lepape/Elizabeth Savage, ‘Hans Burgkmair, L’Emperor Maximilian à cheval’, in Gravure en clair-obscur. Cranach, Raphaël, Rubens, ed. Séverine Lepape (Paris: Musée du Louvre/Liénart, 2018), 36–39; Séverine Lepape/Elizabeth Savage, ‘Hans Burgkmair, Couple d’amants surprise par la Mort’, in Gravure en clair-obscur. Cranach, Raphaël, Rubens, ed. Séverine Lepape (Paris: Musée du Louvre/Liénart, 2018), 44–45.
19. Frederik Muller Lezing 2021: 'Where is the colour in book history' - Elizabeth Savage, retrieved 2024-02-06
20. SHARP 2022. “Info”. https://sharp2022.nl/info/. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
21. Hanes Lecture Series in Bibliography presents Dr. Elizabeth Savage, retrieved 2024-02-06

• Art historians
• Living people