The Conservation Department of the Fogg Art Museum has found that the analytical instrument which best satisfies the requirements of speed, sensitivity, simplicity and versatility is the emission spectrograph. The paper aims to show the importance of emission spectrography in solving problems of interest to both the art historian and conservator and to illustrate some of the practical aspects. Basic principles of the spectrograph and qualitative and quantitative analysis are discussed with figures and tables. Sources for apparatus, supplies and standards are listed in the appendix. -- AATA