Elmer Eusman received his diploma in book and paper conservation in 1989 from the Dutch National School for Conservation, a four-year program now integrated with the University of Amsterdam. After completing his studies, he completed internships in a private conservation studio in Paris, the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, and the British Museum in London. He completed a three-year post-graduate fellowship at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and worked as a conservator at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Boymans Museum in Rotterdam, and the Library of Congress. For almost ten years, he served as the Special Assistant to the Director for Preservation in the Library before he became the Chief of the Conservator Division in 2013.