James Hewitt arrived in New York City on September 5, 1792 from the court of George III where he was leader of the court orchestra. He was active in New York, Boston and other American cities as a composer, publisher, performer, seller, importer, teacher and conductor. Hewitt made his principal base of operations New York City. The portrait is reputed to have been painted in London in 1790 by John Hopner (1758-1810).

Germania is an allegory of the failed German revolutions of 1848, and the continued struggle by German liberals to create a single democratic nation out of their many autocratic states. It was first exhibited in New York’s Düsseldorf Gallery in 1850 and was immediately recognized by critics and public alike as one of the most important European paintings in the United States. Contemporaries noted that the painting had found safe haven in New York City, the epicenter of a large post-revolutionary influx of German liberals. Germania is depicted reaching for the Imperial Crown and Sword of the defunct Holy Roman Empire, while Justice hovers overhead followed by an angel carrying the then revolutionary tri-color flag of a unified Germany. From 2006 until 2011, Germania was exhibited in Berlin as the centerpiece of the Deutsches Historisches Museum’s display on the 1848 revolutions. Germania now finds resonance, across Central Park, with the painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851, Metropolitan Museum of Art), created by German-American artist Emanuel Leutze (1816 –1868), another liberal sympathizer. Leutze’s iconic work, begun in 1849, was seen by contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic as not only connecting the revolutions of 1776 and 1848, but also, like Köhler’s masterpiece, as a rallying cry for the cause of democracy.

Roger Strong (1762-1836) was the fourth son of Daniel Strong and Esther (Chappell) Strong of Lebanon, Connecticut. He studied law with Aaron Burr in New York and became his partner. Strong was for many years an alderman and eighteen times a member of the state legislature; he served as inspector of the state prison in 1810. His portrait was gift to the Society from his granddaughter.

According to the son of the artist, Irving Boyer saw this scene of carousing U.S. servicemen and their dates being observed on the Prospect Park train platform by three nattily dressed civilians while riding home on the elevated. When he reached home he made the painting. Boyer, who immigrated to the U.S. from Russia at the age of five and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, was display director for Hearns Department Store and created theatre billboards in New York City. In addition to this work, he was always painting at home in Brooklyn. The painting captures a wartime incident that was repeated frequently around the City and the nation. There is a sense both of the humor and of the fleeting quality of the scene.

Dennis D'Amelio participated in the World Trade Center artists' program from May through September 2000, working on the 91st floor. In the course of those five months he made a series of small, precisely rendered oil paintings on panel or wood.

This painting depicts a view out across the East River into Brooklyn and Queens from the 91st floor of World Trade Center. In the near distance is a softly lit segment of the East River Drive; spanning the East River are the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. Across the river and reflected in it is the red Watchtower sign and beyond it the Brooklyn Insurance building and the Dime Savings bank. The lights of the bridges and the streets beyond form delicate chains across the inky darkness of the Long Island borough. The effect is delicate and gives a powerful sense of the wide expanse of scenery that was visible on a clear night from the World Trade Center.