Dr. Kane, famous Arctic explorer, was born in Philadelphia to John Kintzing Kane and Jane Duval (Leiper) Kane. His world travels began with his assignments to medical missions in China and in Africa. He served in the Mexican War in which he was wounded and contracted typhus, but by 1850 he had returned to duty with an expedition sent to the Arctic to search for a missing British explorer. The story of this journey is told in "The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin" (1853).

Grosvenor, a New York merchant, bequeathed in his will a sizable sum to the Society which was used to help defray the cost of the building at the corner of Second Avenue and Eleventh Street, the Society's home from 1857 to 1908. This portrait was commissioned posthumously out of appreciation for his generosity.

Griswold was a surgeon in New York before enlisting with the New York 38th Regiment as an assistant surgeon in June 1861. The following month he was captured at Bull Run, Virginia, and he spent the remaining months of his life attending his fellow prisoners in Southern prison camps. His portrait was a gift to the Society from his sister-in-law.

Born in Benson, Vermont, the subject was the son of Rufus and Deborah (Wass) Griswold. He became a Baptist minister in 1837, but soon gave up the ministry for journalism and social reforms. He worked for Horace Greeley in New York (1839-40), and later as a book editor.

A native of Bavaria, Grim came to New York with his parents while still an infant. From 1767 to 1789 he was the proprietor, first on Chapel Street, and then on William Street, of the Hessian's Coffee House, where many German immigrants congregated. This is one of the earliest known signed and dated portraits by Samuel Waldo, who established his studio in New York in 1809. It was a gift to the Society from the subject's great-granddaughter.

Dr. Griffith was a physician in Rahway, New Jersey, and a founder of the New Jersey Medical Society.

Lydia Butler was the daughter of Colonel Zebulon Butler, who served in the British army in the French and Indian Wars. Butler's second wife, Phebe Haight (d. 1837), was the mother of the subject. Lydia Butler married George Griffin, a Pennsylvania lawyer, in 1801. Her portrait was a gift to the Society from her granddaughter.

A native of Connecticut, the subject graduated from Yale in 1797, and two years later was admitted to the bar. He settled in New York in 1806 and maintained a practice in partnership with George Washington Strong, becoming one of the city's most capable lawyers. His portrait was a gift to the Society from his granddaughter.

The subject settled in New York City after the Revolutionary War and became a leading dentist, gaining fame as the man who made a set of false teeth for President George Washington. His portrait was a gift to the Society from his great-granddaughter.

This is one of the several portraits commissioned by George A. Zabriskie to add to the Society's portraits of the presidents of the United States.