Staff profile

Johanna Rivera graduated from Universidad de Chile in 2001 with a BA in Theory and Art History before pursuing postgraduate studies in Conservation of Cultural Heritage, which she completed in 2005. That same year, she relocated to the United States to join the H.L. Hunley Submarine (1864) Project in Charleston, South Carolina as a conservator. To further expand her expertise, she earned a Graduate Certificate in Museum Collections Management and Care from George Washington University in 2011. Since 2018, Johanna has served as the Senior Conservator for the project under Clemson University, where she leads conservation procedures for the submarine, artifact excavation and treatment, and other university-managed archaeological collections. In addition to serving as an adjunct faculty member, she has worked as a consultant—performing tasks as an instructor and field conservator, as well as assessing collections for several institutions in South Carolina and other national and international institutions. Her research interests include the degradation of materials from underwater sites and treatment protocols for waterlogged organics and marine archaeological iron. Johanna is currently a PhD student at Durham University, where her research focuses on desalination techniques, conservation treatments for marine archaeological iron, and future display methods for the Hunley submarine.

Publications

Peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings

Rivera, Johanna; Allen, Melissa.  “The Conservation Journey of a Waterlogged Wood Compass Box”. 16th ICOM-CC Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Conference. Göteborg, Sweden. 2025. 

Roche, Kimberly; Hoffmann, William; Davis, Diana; Rivera, Johanna. “A Monumental Mission: Managing Treatment Lifetimes for Industrial-Scale Marine Iron Alloy Artifacts”. In Bridging the gap: Corrosion Science for Heritage Contexts. European Federation of Corrosion (EFC) Green Book Series. Volume 73 pp. 53-74. Editors: Neff, Delphine; Grassini, Sabrina; Watkinson, David. Woodhead Publishing, 2025

Rivera, Johanna and DeLong Nicholas. “Interpretation and reconstruction of waterlogged archaeological textiles excavated from the H.L. Hunley Submarine: A collaborative effort between conservators, archaeologists, curators, and digital artists”. 15th ICOM-CC Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Conference. Mainz, Germany. 2023

Kasprzok, Lisa; Boussert, Stéphanie; Rivera, Johanna; Cretté, Stéphanie. “Characterization of 19th century candles from maritime archaeological environments with FTIR, NMR, and GC–MS”. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 35, 2021. 

Rivera, Johanna; Scafuri, Michael; DeLong Nicholas. “The H.L.Hunley Submarine Project: Two Decades of Research and Discovery”. TINA Maritime Archaeology Periodical. Journal of the Turkish Underwater Archaeology Foundation (TINA). Number 14, 2020

Rivera, Johanna. “The conservation and deconcretion process of the American Civil War submarine H.L.Hunley (1864)”. Proceedings 1st Symposium of Conservation for Underwater Archaeology (ISCUA). Institut Balear d’Estudis en Arqueología Marítima (IBEAM). Formetera, Spain 2019. In press.

Rivera, Johanna; Mardikian, Paul; Scafuri, Michael; Näsänen, Liisa; González-Pereyra, Nestor. “Revealing the H.L. Hunley: The strategic planning and deconcretion process of an American Civil War submarine”. Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the ICOM-CC Metals Working Group, September 2-6, 2019, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Rivera, Johanna; Scafuri, Michael. “The Sea, the Sub, and Maritime Collaboration: How conservators and archaeologists worked together to recover and conserve the H.L. Hunley submarine”. Engaging Conservation: Collaboration across Disciplines. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Nina Owczarek, Molly Gleeson and Lynn Grant editors. Archetype Publications 2017

Rivera, Johanna. “The use of refurbished marine containers as a permanent storage solution for the maritime collection of the H.L.Hunley submarine”. Journal of the American Institute for Conservation. Special Edition on Collections. Vol. 56:2. 2017

Rivera, Johanna; Kasprzok, Lisa M.; Boussert, Stephanie; Crette, Stephanie. “Restoring the Light to a 19th Century Candle Lost at Sea: Conservation and Chemical Analysis of a Candle recovered from the H.L. Hunley Submarine”. Proceedings of the 13th ICOM-CC Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Conference. May 2016 Florence, Italy. 

Rivera, Johanna; Quinn, Raegan. "Preserving the past through public outreach: The H.L.Hunley and a decade of discovery". Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Conference "Playing to the Galleries and Engaging New Audiences: the public face of conservation". Williamsburg, Virginia. November 2011. 

Rivera, Johanna; Jacobsen, Maria; Mardikian, Paul; Scafuri, Michael; de Vivies, Philippe. “A new approach to excavating and handling waterlogged textiles from the American Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley”. Proceedings of the 11th ICOM-CC Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Conference. Grenville, North Carolina. May 2010. 

Rivera, Johanna; Mardikian, Paul; Cretté, Stéphanie. “Waterlogged textile recovered from the Civil War submarine H.L.Hunley: Identification and conservation of textile belonging to Lieutenant George Dixon”. Textile Specialty Group Postprints. Volume 19, 2009 (29-144). American Institute for Conservation 37th Annual Meeting. Los Angeles, California. May 2009.

Rivera, Johanna; de Vivies, Philippe; Hacke, Marei; Ballard, Mary; Drews, Michael; Mardikian, Paul. “Conserving a Unique Waterlogged Silk Bandana from the H.L Hunley Submarine (1864)”. Textile Specialty Group Postprints Volume 18, 2008 (38-55). American Institute for Conservation 36th Annual Meeting. Denver, Colorado. April 2008. 

Rivera, Johanna; Mardikian, Paul. “La Responsabilidad en el Rescate de Artefactos Marinos: El Caso del H.L. Hunley (1864), un Proyecto Desafiante en el Campo de la Conservación Subacuática”.  Revista de Arqueología Americana. Journal of American Archaeology. Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia. Vol. 26 2008 (87-130).

Rivera, Johanna; Berger, Olivier. “Restauración y conservación de metal arqueológico subacuático: plata y bronce. Objetos provenientes del galeón español San Diego (1600)”.  Proceedings of the 2nd Latin-American Conference in Metal Restoration. Rio de Janeiro. Brazil. July 2005. 

Posters

Roche, Kim; Arslaner, Lisa; Rivera, Johanna. “Standardizing Acid Digestion Methodology to Determine the Chloride Content of Ferrous Corrosion Samples”. ICOM-CC Metal 2022: Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the ICOM-CC Metal Working Group Helsinki, Finland. September 2022. 

Funke, Anna; Rivera, Johanna; Porteous, Gyllian. “Comparing Different Deconcretion Strategies for the Ballast Tank of the H.L. Hunley Submarine” ICOM-CC Metal 2019: Proceedings of the Interim Meeting of the ICOM-CC Metal Working Group, Neuchatel, Switzerland, 2-6 September 2019, ICOM-CC and HE-Arc CR, Neuchatel, 2019, 464

Rivera, Johanna; Crette, Stephanie; Kasprzok Lisa “A Crystal Clear Conservation Problem: The Formation of Sulfur Based Crystals on Waterlogged Organics”. ICOM-CC Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Conference. Portsmouth, UK 2019.

Rivera, Johanna; Kasprzok Lisa. “Mass treatment of waterlogged rubber gaskets and seals from the American submarine H.L.Hunley (1864)”. Poster and Preprints of the 18th ICOM-CC Triennial Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark 2017.

Rivera, Johanna. “Preliminary analysis of a candle recovered from the H.L.Hunley submarine”. Poster and Proceedings of the 12th ICOM-CC Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Conference. Istanbul, Turkey 2013. 

Stroud, Sarah E.; Rivera Johanna. “Revolutionary Preservation at Drayton Hall”. Poster presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA) conference. Austin, Texas. January 2011.

Rivera, Johanna; Mardikian, Paul; Nied, Daniel. “Conservation of Lt. Dixon's Pocket Watch Recovered from the H.L Hunley Submarine (1864)”. Poster and Preprints of the ICOM-CC Metals Working group conference. Charleston, South Carolina. October 2010.

Rivera, Johanna. “El uso de mecanismos de absorción de oxigeno para el almacenaje de objetos compuestos provenientes de ambientes subacuáticos.”  Poster presented in the third Latin-American Conference in Metal Restoration. Ciudad de México. September 2009.

Watters, Chris; Blouin, Vincent; Brocard, Typhaine; de Vivies, Philippe; Mardikian, Paul; Rivera, Johanna. “Remove it or lose it!  Removing of the forward and aft ballast tank pumps and the strategic planning for the long term preservation of the H.L. Hunley submarine.” Poster, American Institute for Conservation 37th Annual Meeting. May 2009. Los Angeles, California.

Rivera, Johanna. “Descubrimiento, reflote y excavación del submarino norteamericano H.L.Hunley”.  Poster presented in the third Chilean Conference in Conservation and Restoration. Santiago, Chile. October 2007. 

Rivera, Johanna. “Deterioro y conservación de materiales orgánicos provenientes del submarino norteamericano H.L.Hunley”. Poster presented in the third Chilean Conference in Conservation and Restoration. Santiago, Chile. October 2007.

• Marine archaeological iron
• Waterlogged organic materials
• Display methods for marine archaeological objects