Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Matthew Clarke

Matthew Clarke, Ph.D., is a conservation scientist in the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.

Stories from this author

Conservator Jiro Ueda positions the handscroll prior to reflectance imaging spectroscopy. A large camera mounted above his head captures images through a hole in the table

Behind the Scenes: Imaging A Japanese Handscroll

Learn how conservators at the National Museum of Asian Art preserved this fragile Japanese hand scroll "Miraculous Interventions of Jizo Bosatsu."