Introduction To Boston Tour: Portrait Of The North End

Jessica is an archaeologist and historian who has also worked as a docent for Context in Rome. Born and raised in the historic North End of Boston, she followed the Bostonian cursus honorem of studies at Boston Latin School and Harvard before becoming a certified teacher and guide. She has collaborated with several local cultural institutions on tours of historic sites, including Historic Neighborhoods and the Boston Center for Jewish Heritage. Deeply knowledgeable about the history of Boston, she possesses a teacher's gift for framing and contextualizing information. She loves exploring her native city in the company of her son.

Lauren currently researches and teaches in the Boston area, and has a strong interest in sharing her knowledge of her adopted hometown. She completed her doctorate at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York City, writing her dissertation on the architecture and urbanism of banks in early modern Italy. Her enjoyment of architectural history budded after college while working for Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, a Philadelphia based firm.

Rachel Kase is a student in the M.A. program in art history at Boston University. Her focus is seventeenth-century Dutch painting, particularly the influence of global trade on gender roles and Dutch genre painting. Previously, Rachel worked in the Old Master Paintings department at Sotheby’s in New York and at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. in English Literature and American Studies from the University of Virginia. While she was at U.V.A., she worked as a docent at the Fralin Museum of Art and interned at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. These experiences inspired her to have a career in the field of art history, though she has always been a lover of history and the arts. A native of Lexington, Massachusetts, Rachel grew-up frequenting the rich array of museums and historical sites in the greater Boston area. She feels lucky to be back in Boston, where she can take advantage of the encyclopedic collection at the MFA Boston as she pursues her graduate studies.