Elizabeth Savage (historian)

Lauren Elizabeth Savage (née Upper) FSA, FRHistS FHEA is a British, American and German art historian, bibliographer, curator, and printer specialising in western late medieval and early modern printing practices.^[1] She is a leading authority on how information was printed 1400–1600, especially in Europe and especially in colour.^[1][2]

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.^[1][3]

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.^[1] 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.^[1] After working at the Warburg Institute,^[1] she took a PhD at King’s College, Cambridge, supervised by Jean Michel Massing, in 2013.^[4]

While completing her PhD, Savage was a keyholder to the rare book vaults at Cambridge University Library as Munby Fellow in Bibliography.^[5] As a postdoc, her work at the John Rylands Research Institute, University of Manchester, was highlighted in Nature,^[6] and she then held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, Faculty of English, Cambridge University with a Postdoctoral By-fellowship, Churchill College, Cambridge.^[7]

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.^[1] 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).^[1]

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.^[8] The Printing Colour Project is based at the London Rare Books School, Institute of English Studies, part of the University of London, UK. The London Rare Books School hosts an ever changing, hands-on short courses, seasonal schools, and events on a variety of book-related subjects that change over time.^[9] The Institute of English Studies (IES), is a center for research, teaching and advocacy that speaks both for and about books, specializing in the history of the book, manuscript and print studies, textual scholarship, digital editing and new critical approaches to literary history.^[10]

At the Printing Historical Society, she serves on the Grants & Prizes (2016–present) and Publications Committees (2017-present).^[11] 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).

Her research awards include the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015) and British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award (2017).^[12]  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,^[13] 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^[14]
• 2014 Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship, American Printing History Association[14], for The Earliest Artifacts of Color Printing: Early Modern Frisket Sheets, c.1490-c.1620.^[15]
• 2016 Wolfgang Ratjen Prize “for distinguished research in the field of graphic arts” from Conivncta Florescit/Germany’s Central Institute for Art History^[16]
• 2016 International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Book Awards Honourable mention^[17] for Ad Stijnman/Elizabeth Savage, eds. Printing Colour 1400–1700: History, Techniques, Functions and Receptions (Brill, 2015^[18]
• 2020 Schulman and Bullard Article Prize, Association of Print Scholars^[19] “Identifying Hans Baldung Grien’s Colour Printer, c.1511–12,” Burlington Magazine 161 (October 2019): 830–839^[20]
• 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)^[1]
• 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)^[1]
• 2026 Individual Laureate Award, American Printing History Association,^[21] 'for a distinguished contribution to the study, recording, preservation or dissemination of printing history, in any specific area or in general terms.'

Savage collaborates with library and museum collections. She has curated exhibitions at Cambridge University Library (2013)^[22] and the British Museum (2015).^[23] She has contributed to others, including at Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf (2017), Groeningemuseum (2018), the Louvre (2019),^[24] and Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (2019).

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^[25]
• Keynote, annual meeting of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), 2022^[26]
• Relaunch lecture, Hanes Lecture Series in Bibliography, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2022^[27]