Lance Humphries received his doctorate in Art History from the University of Virginia, where his dissertation explored the art and architectural patronage of Robert Gilmor, Jr. (1774–1848). He has published and lectured on art collecting in the early Republic, the Peales, Baltimore painted furniture, and Carrère & Hastings’s City Beautiful planning work in Baltimore. He is completing a manuscript, “The Baltimore Townhouse, 1780–1865,” and is at present the Executive Director of the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy in Baltimore.