Elisabeth Berry Drago

Elisabeth (Lisa) Berry Drago is director of museum education at the Science History Institute. She also cohosts (with Alexis Pedrick) the Institute’s podcast on the odd and fascinating histories of science, Distillations. She curated The Story of Ramie: From Seed to Finished Garment (2024), BOLD: Color from Test Tube to Textile (2023–2024), Things Fall Apart (2017–2018) and Age of Alchemy (2018–2021). Berry Drago is the winner of a 2018 American Alliance of Museums’ Award for Excellence in Exhibition Label Writing (Things Fall Apart).

Berry Drago holds a PhD in art history from the University of Delaware, specializing in the representation of science and artisanal work, the history of the print, and artistic identity-making. Her most recent book, Painted Alchemists (Amsterdam University Press, 2019), is the first monograph on the painter Thomas Wijck (1616–1677), whose pictures of alchemists in the laboratory offer new perspectives on early modern science and artistry.