The subject was given the name of his father, who was governor of New York from 1857 to 1859. He was born at the family farm at Jamaica, Long Island, and after graduating from Harvard became a lawyer in New York. He held political office briefly as a member of the state assembly in 1874-75. He became a member of N-YHS in 1881, and from 1887 until his death thirteen years later served as its eighteenth president.

Keteltas as a brevet lieutenant colonel in the Union Army, and participated in the battles of Chickamauga, Georgia, and Mission Ridge, Tennessee. In this portrait, a gift to the Society from his sister, he is shown in uniform wearing the medals he received for gallant and meritorious conduct under fire in these battles.

The subject was a lawyer and a member of one of New York's oldest families. This portrait came to the Society as part of the bequest of his granddaughter.

The subject was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and as a youth was apprenticed to a saddlemaker. At the age of eighteen he decided to become a painter and went to Philadelphia, studying briefly with Denis A. Volozan. By 1810 he had established his studio in New York, where it was to remain the rest of his life. Paradise was one of the founders of the National Academy of Design.

The subject was a lawyer and a member of one of New York's oldest families.

The subject was the son of the artist, John Paradise (1783-1833), and Elizabeth (Stout) Paradise.

Mary Eveline Fellows was born in Malta, New York. She married Stephen Edson Paine (1830-1920) in Mechanicsville, New York, in 1852. According to family tradition, this portrait and its companion were painted in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1852, about the time that Mr. and Mrs. Paine were married. The two portraits were gifts to the Society from the subjects' daughter.

The subject, the son of Stephen Paine (1791-1830) and Polly Ann (Calkins) Paine, was born in Greenfield, New York, and at the age of nineteen moved to New York City where he entered the publishing business and became a partner in the firm of Calkins and Paine. He later lived in Chicago and in Iowa City, Iowa. According to family tradition, this portrait and its companion were painted in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1852, about the time that Mr. and Mrs. Paine were married.

Robert Maitland, the son of David Maitland of Scotland and Mary (Currie) Maitland, was a merchant in Petersburg, Virginia, who later established himself in a very prosperous mercantile business in New York. He was a member of the group known at the "House of Lords" which met at Baker's Tavern every night, and included such men as Gulian Verplanck, Robert Lenox, Preserved Fish, and John Wesley Jarvis.

This portrait was probably either executed in Philadelphia where the artist lived and worked or in Washington when the subject was in her last year as First Lady. According to Bowen ("Centennial of the Inauguration of George Washington," 1892, pp. 507-08), this portrait was originally in the Peale Museum in Philadelphia. The donor, Thomas J. Bryan, acquired it from the American Museum collection in 1863.