The author gives a short survey of the various regional conservation centers established in the United States in order to enable groups of museums to cope with their problems of conservation by using the services of a conservation laboratory of the first order. These centers were founded successively in Oberlin, Ohio as early as 1952 and, in the last three years, in Andover, Massachusetts; Augusta, Maine; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Honolulu, Hawaii; and San Diego, California. This is followed by a short essay on clarity in communication between conservators and curators.