Thomas Cole is best known as the leader of the nineteenth-century American landscape movement known as the Hudson River School. However, he also painted a handful of portraits, including John W. Jones, ca. 1818-25 (Minneapolis Institute of Arts) and the N-YHS's self-portrait from ca. 1836 (1964.41). During this period Cole may have also painted a portrait of John Gallier. The attribution is based on family tradition; the portrait was the gift of the sitter's grandson and granddaughter, Thomas and Mary LeBoutillier. It bears a strong stylistic resemblance to the N-YHS self-portrait, but in the absence of more definitive evidence, the attribution remains tentative. Little is known of the sitter, John Gallier (1799-1881). He and his brother James served an apprenticeship in their native Ireland under their father Thaddeus Gallier, a builder, and in the early 1820s they operated their own small construction firm before moving to London for ten years. It may be there that Gallier married, probably by 1825. The two brothers established themselves in New York in 1832 but several years later went to New Orleans. John returned to New York where he worked at an evolving string of businesses related to home building and decoration. He began as a maker of architectural ornaments in the 1830s; he was most likely successful, since he expanded the business to form the firm of Gallier and Murphy from approximately 1839 to 1844. His later occupations listed in New York City Directories include decorator, builder, and even artist. Gallier and Cole may have known each other through Cole's interest in architecture or Gallier's artistic aspirations. This portrait might have been commissioned during a prosperous period in the mid-1830s, since Gallier himself appears to be in his mid-to-late thirties. His wife Margaret died in 1858, and he later lived with his daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Thomas LeBoutillier, whose children gave this painting to the Historical Society.

Mary Lucille Stevens was the daughter of Horatio Gates Stevens and Elizabeth Lucille (Rhinelander) Stevens. She married Albert Rolaz Gallatin in November 1837, the year in which this portrait was painted.

In 1843, the year in which Powell painted this portrait, Albert Gallatin was elected the ninth president of The New-York Historical Society.

A diplomat and financier, Gallatin was born and educated in Switzerland but came to the Colonies during the struggle for independence. He served in the Pennsylvania state legislature (1790-92), and in Congress (1792-93, 1795-1801); under Presidents Jefferson and Madison he was secretary of treasury; he later served as United States minister to France (1816-23) and England (1826-27). From 1843 to 1849 he was president of N-YHS. His portrait was a gift to the Society from his great-grandson.

This painting is based on a much larger portrait of British General John Burgoyne executed by Allan Ramsay in Rome in 1756. The smaller version may have been used as the basis of an engraving that forms the frontispiece of Edward Barrington De Fonblanque's "Political and Military Episodes in the Latter Half of the Eighteenth Century, Derived from the Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. John Burgoyne, General, Statesman, Dramatist" (1876).

A graduate of West Point, General Bullard served for 40 years as an officer in the United States army, and after his retirement, in 1925, was appointed president of the National Security League. In 1933, General Bullard presented to the New-York Historical Society all of the uniforms he had worn during his years of service.

The noted actor Edwin Forrest achieved his first fame in New York at the Park Theatre in 1826, in the role of Othello. For the next quarter century he was America's leading tragedian, rivaling such English stars as Edmund Kean and William Macready.

Bruce, a typefounder and printer, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and came to America in 1795. He became a printer's apprentice in Philadelphia and by 1803 was printer and publisher of the "Daily Advertiser" in New York. He and his brother subsequently opened a book-printing house on Pearl Street and a type foundry on Chambers Street. Bruce was president of the Mechanics' Institute of New York and of the New York Type-founders' Assn.; he was also a member of the New-York Historical Society.

The subject was the son of Joel Brownson of Vermont. After practicing law for several years in St. Martinsville, Louisiana, he returned north and spent the last years of his life in Brooklyn and Oyster Bay. This portrait was probably painted in the artist's studio at 3 Laight Street in New York. It was given as a gift to the Society by the sitter's grandson.

The subject of this portrait was a shipwright in New York; his firm, R. Brown & Co., had its premises at 321 Water Street in 1802. His residence was at 26 James Street. The portrait was donated to the Society by his great-granddaughter.