Bryan purchased this replica of the famous "Athenaeum type" portrait of Washington at the 1854 sale of the effects of the Peale Museum. Stuart himself is known to have made nearly a hundred replicas of his original, which remained in his studio until after his death when it went to the Boston Athenaeum. This portrait by Gilbert Stuart is based on the artist's "Athenaeum Washington," the most famous of his many renderings of the first American president as elder statesman. The portrait aptly captures the image of the man held by most of his fellow countrymen and presages the cult that grew up around Washington during the Federal Period, which transformed a noble and interesting human being into a national icon and sentimentalized pious hero.

Mary (McKay) Greenwood was married to Isaac John Greenwood I in 1832, as his second wife. She was the youngest child of John and Elizabeth (Ridell) McKay of New York. Her father was a merchant in the China trade who had come to New York from Ireland in 1783. This portrait was a gift to the Society from her granddaughter.