Léontine Arnaud, the mother of Peter Marié, was the youngest daughter of General Joseph Louis Arnaud, a planter of Santo Domingo, and Mary (Nicholson) Arnaud. After her father's assassination during a native uprising, her mother brought the subject and her two sisters to New York. She married Jean Baptiste Marié in 1811.

The subject was the great-grandmother of Peter Marié.

Anna Van Nest was the wife of Richard Gambrill, a leading New York merchant, and was prominent in New York and Newport society.

Mary Rose Donnelly was the daughter of Edward Constantine Donnelly, tax commissioner of New York, and Rose (Ford) Donnelly. In 1894 she was married to Charles Astor Bristed (1871-1936), a lawyer of Stockbridge, Mass., who was a great-grandson of John Jacob Astor.

Katherine (Berry) di Zerega was the mother of Richard A. di Zerega and of Charlotte, Lady Frankland, wife of Sir Frederick Frankland. She was the author of "The Children's Paradise," published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1877. Her husband's father was Augustus di Zerega of Island Hall, Westchester County, owner of the Red Z clipper ship line.

Sophia Augusta Brown was the only daughter of John Carter Brown (1797-1874) and Sophia Augusta (Brown) Brown of Providence, R.I. She was a great-granddaughter of Nicholas Brown, founder of Brown University. She became the second wife of William Watts Sherman (1842-1912), a New York banker, on October 7, 1885.

Adele Beach Grant, eldest daughter of Beach Grant of New York, was the second wife of the seventh Earl of Essex, George Devereux de Vere Capell (1857-1916). They married in 1893.

Jane Emmet came from an artistic New York family and pursued a career as a portrait painter. She married the British impressionist painter Wilfred de Glehn in 1904 and spent much of her married life in England. The couple traveled frequently with John Singer Sargent, who depicted Jane in numerous works. Katherine Behenna, who exhibited under the pseudonym John Prendergast, favored dramatic poses like this one, showing Jane with her back turned and her face seen in profile.

Florence Stevens Waite was the daughter of Charles H. Waite of Cleveland, Ohio. She married John B. Marié, Jr. (1859-1937), son of John B. Marié of New York, on June 18, 1885. Her husband was a nephew of the donor.