Clark first appeared in the New York City Directory in 1833, when he was listed as a merchant. For many years he lived at 830 Broadway, but in 1875 he moved to 450 Fifth Avenue, his permanent residence. This portrait bust was a gift to the Society from his great-granddaughter.

Enos Throop was the Governor of New York from 1829-1832.

One of the most widely recognized landmarks in the world, the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States commemorating human liberty and friendship between the two nations. Liberty Enlightening the World, as the monumental statue was titled, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, an ardent patriot with a fascination for the colossal. Liberty's face bears the recognizable features of Bartholdi's mother, while the arms and torso were modeled after the sculptor's wife, Jeanne-Emilie. Liberty was intended for presentation to the United States on July 4, 1876 in honor of the nation's centennial, but sluggish fundraising slowed the statue's completion. The 30-foot raised arm and torch, constructed in time to be displayed at the International Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, generated great enthusiasm for the project. After the Centennial, the arm and torch were displayed in Madison Square for six years in order to raise money for the design and construction of the statue's massive concrete pedestal. In 1878, Bartholdi contracted with the Paris foundry Avoiron & Cie. to produce casts of Liberty in four sizes, including this two-foot reduction from Bartholdi's four-foot modèle d'étude. The completed statue was finally unveiled in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886, a day of celebration for the more than 1 million people who lined New York's bunting-draped streets to watch a parade of more than 20,000 marchers. At the time of her dedication, the Statue of Liberty was the tallest structure in New York, reaching 305 feet, and today remains a potent symbol of both New York and the nation.

According to the accession records, this eagle used on the reviewing stand in the Court of Honor in Madison Square during Admiral George Dewey's reception celebration on September 28, 29, and 30, 1899.

Thomas Crawford was born in New York and apprenticed there with the sculptors John Frazee (1790-1852) and Robert Launitz (1806-1870). He moved to Rome in 1835 where he trained with the Danish-born sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), Antonio Canova's (1757-1822) successor as the preeminent neoclassical sculptor of the age. Such was Crawford's skill that he soon came to be considered Thorvaldsen's heir. "The Indian" is a later remodeling in the round of Crawford's figure for the pediment frieze of the Senate wing of the U.S. Capital, a commission he worked on from 1853 to 1855. The artist gave particular attention to this figure, which is the only representation of a classical nude in the pediment. Crawford's vision of the government's program for the frieze, the triumph of civilization over the savage state, was somewhat sympathetic to American Indians. His noble representation of pathos has distinct similarities to the second century "Dying Gaul" (formerly Dying Gladiator) in the Capitoline Museum in Rome, with which Crawford would have been familiar. At Crawford's death, the great English sculptor John Gibson (1790-1866) singled out "The Indian" among the works remaining in the artist's Rome studio as the best suited to be "placed in some fine public hall," "there to stand as a monument to the author, an American sculptor of great genius." The artist's widow, Louisa Ward Crawford Terry (1823-1897), sister of the abolitionist poet Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), sent "The Indian" to New York in 1861. The critic Henry T. Tuckerman (1813-1871) noted that the Civil War was an "unfortunate" time to sell artwork; acting on Mrs. Terry's behalf, he deposited "The Indian" at the New-York Historical Society. In 1875, Frederic de Peyster, the Society's president (1864-1866; 1873-1882), purchased "The Indian" for the substantial sum of $4,000. The work remained in the vestible of the Society's Second Avenue home, until the Society moved to Central Park West in 1908. There, "The Indian" was placed opposite the main door to the auditorium, an area of prominence to which it now returns.

Colonel Commandant Kovats (also spelled Kowatz), a native of Kardszag, Hungary, was drillmaster of Washington's cavalry and later commandant of lancers in the Pulaski Legion. He was killed in action at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1779. The artist, Alexander Finta, like the subject, was a native of Hungary.