Sitter is the father of the artist.

This miniature was a gift to the Society from the subject's niece.

The subject was the grandfather of the donor.

A native of Vermont, Ray Boynston had by 1832 settled in New York and gone into business as a commission merchant. The black tie and high collar of the coat he wears suggest a date for this miniature of around the late 1830s.

Eleanor Boyle Ewing was the daughter of Thomas Ewing (1789-1871) and Maria Wills (Boyle) Ewing of Ohio. Her father was a U.S. senator and the first secretary of the interior under Zachary Taylor. Her future husband lived in the Ewing household from 1829, the date of his father's death. Sherman and Eleanor Ewing were married on May 1, 1850, in Washington, D.C.

Antonia E. Lentilhon was the daughter of Eugène Lentilhon (1810-79) and Emily Louisa (Smith) Lentilhon (1816-69). Her father was born in Lyons, France, and emigrated to New York where he became a successful cotton merchant. The artist was the sitter's son; his wife, Jean (Shepard) Fesser, was the donor of the portrait.

Elizabeth M. Moran was the daughter of Theodore T. Moran and Sarah D. Moran of New York. She became the second wife of Edwin Denison Morgan (1854-1933), grandson and namesake of the Civil War governor of New York, on April 11, 1888.

The subject was the eldest daughter of William Bayard Hoffman (d. 1880) and his second wife, Mary Gracie Ulshoeffer, whom he married in 1865.

Mary Louise Parsons was first married to William Lawrence Breese in 1882; he died in 1888 and in 1894 she was married to Henry Vincent Higgins (d. 1928) of England.