The subject of this portrait was the second son of Dr. John Davis (1801-83) and Sarah B. (Reynolds) Davis of Bound Brook and Westfield, N.J. 1859 Davis, who was commissioned a captain in the Ninth Infantry Regiment of the New York State Militia in 1859, served in the Civil War. He graduated with a law degree from New York University in 1863 and subsequently practiced law at 19 South William Street, in New York City. This posthumous portrait was a gift to the Society from his grandson.

The subect, the third son of Dr. Darius Mead and Lydia K. (Belcher) Mead, was born in the family home in Greenwich, Connecticut. By 1842 he had joined his elder brothers in their grocery business at 27 Water Street in New York City. Mead was a member of the board of directors of The Fourth National Bank (organized in 1864) and a senior member of the firm Frederick Mead and Co. His portrait was a gift to the Society from his daughter.

Robert, the son of Rev. John Livingston, was born in Ancrum, Scotland, but spent the latter years of his boyhood in Holland, where his father went to escape religious persecution. By his twentieth birthday he had come to the Province of New York and settled in Albany. He acquired large tracts of land along the Hudson, and in 1686 obtained a patent which made his lands a manor, and himself the first lord of Livingston Manor. This portrait of him is a twentieth-copy of an original dated 1718.

The artist Hassack was active in Baltimore in the second half of the 19th century. Nothing further is known of him. It is not likely that Cleveland actually sat for him; the portrait was, in fact, painted from a three-quarter-length photograph. An engraving of this photograph has been reproduced as the frontispiece in "Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia" (n.s. 9, 1884).

The subject was the fourth son of Captain Elnathan Street and Damaris (Hull) Street of Wallingford, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale with the class of 1751 and went on to study divinity. He was ordained and appointed pastor of the Congregational Society of East Haven, Connecticut, in 1755, and held this position until his death. The artist married Hannah Street (1767-1848), the subject's daughter, in 1792. The donor was a direct descendant of the subject.

Augustus Wood Clason was the only son of Augustus Washington Clason and Maria C. (Wood) Clason of New York. He worked as an attorney-at-law and had offices on Wall Street.

The son of William Maxwell, the subject was born in Paisley, Scotland, and came to New York with his family at the age of three. He attended Columbia College and afterward studied law. In 1814 he was appointed assistant judge advocate general of the U.S. army, and from 1821 to 1829 served as district attorney for New York County. From 1849 to 1853 he served as collector of the Port of New York. His portrait was a gift to the Society from his great-grandson.

The subject was the son of Robert, the first lord of Livingston Manor; in 1728 he succeeded his father as second lord. He was the father of six sons and four daughters, among them Philip Livingston (a signer of the Declaration of Independence), William Livingston (a governor of New Jersey), and Peter Van Brugh Livingston. During the latter part of his life he resided in New York.