Cafferty copied this painting from the original by Thomas Waterman Wood at the request of Robert L. Stuart. Although, the newspaper vendor in this photograph, Moses, was an urban freeman in Baltimore, his choice of career was limited by "Black Codes", laws that prohibited entry into certain professions and limited ownership of businesses.

Hu Shih was born in Shanghai and educated at Cornell University and Columbia. He was a research fellow of the China Foundation until 1938 when he was appointed ambassador to the United States, a position he held until 1942. He subsequently became a chief advisor to Chiang Kai-shek and in 1946, the year in which this portrait was painted, became chancellor of Peking University.

The subject, who succeeded as the seventh Earl of Carlisle in 1848, became a member of Parliament in 1826. He served as Irish Secretary under Lord Melbourne from 1835 to 1841, and in 1855 became Viceroy of Ireland, an office he held without interrupton until 1864. From 1850 to 1852 he was chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and it was as such that he was painted by Huntington.

A native New Yorker, David Hosack became a noted physician and one of the city's most prominent citizens. As a young doctor, he distinguished himself during the yellow fever epidemic of 1797-98, and he was the attending physician at the Aaron Burr-Alexander Hamilton duel. He was a biographer and historian as well as a founder and the fourth president of N-YHS (1820-1827). This portrait is based on an original painted by John Trumbull in 1806, owned by New York Hospital.

This is a copy of the original painting by Bose (in the Massachusetts Historical Society), which was painted in Paris on the commission of William Short, who was acting as agent for Thomas Jefferson. The Society's copy (bust length; the original is half-length with a scenic background) is not as sharp in its contours as the original, suggesting it was not made by Bose himself. It was executed in France for General Stevens, who was Lafayette's artillery officer in the Virginia campaign of 1780.

A native of West Cambridge, Mass., Henry Dexter moved to New York in 1836 where he was employed in a hardware business, but six years later gave that up to go into marketing and distribution of books and magazines. In 1864 he organized the American News Co., of which he was president for many years. He became a member of N-YHS in 1863, and in 1904 partly financed the construction of the Society's new home on Central Park West. The main exhibition area on the second floor is named for Dexter.

A native of West Cambridge, Mass., Henry Dexter moved to New York in 1836 where he was employed in a hardware business, but six years later gave that up to go into marketing and distribution of books and magazines. In 1864 he organized the American News Co., of which he was president for many years. He became a member of N-YHS in 1863, and in 1904 partly financed the construction of the Society's new home on Central Park West. The main exhibition area on the second floor is named for Dexter.

Thomas De Witt was born in Kingston, New York, into a Dutch family of long ancestry in New York. A doctor of divinity, De Witt became one of the pastors of the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church in New York City in 1827. He joined The New-York Historical Society in 1838, and two years later was elected a vice-president, an office he was to hold for nearly 30 years; he also served as the thirteenth president of the Society (1869-71).