This well-known physician was Chairman of Physiology and Pathology and later Chairman of Pathology and Practical Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (later part of Columbia University) beginning in 1848. He was Dean and President of that institution from 1875 to 1885. (section 20)

An inventor, manufacturer, and philanthropist, Cooper built the first steam locomotive in the United States and invented the washing machine. Alongside Cyrus W. Field, Cooper served as the first president of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, which was responsible for laying the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858. A social welfare advocate, Cooper supported proposals for paid police and fire departments and improvement in prisons, water quality, and public schools in the City. In 1857, he founded the Cooper Union, a tuition-free college "for the advancement of science and art" for gifted working-class students. He was also a strong supporter of the Greenback Party and was nominated for President on its ticket in 1876. In 1897, his granddaughters, Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt, founded the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum as an extension of the Cooper Union. Sculpted in 1897 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a monument to Cooper now stands in Cooper Square, south of East 7th Street. (section 15)

Born in Monroe, Michigan, Elizabeth "Libbie" Bacon moved to New York City shortly after the death of her husband, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, at the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. She cherished New York as a place where women could "enjoy a great degree of the sweet freedom and independence which in other places is accorded only to men." After briefly volunteering at various hospitals, she served as secretary for the Society of Decorative Arts, which was founded by her close friend Candace Thurber Wheeler. This organization promoted women's opportunities to earn a living through the production of artistic crafts and rejected the "invisible wall of prejudice and custom" that generally denied them these opportunities. After five and a half years with the Society, and around the time she signed the Giant Memorial, Custer began writing the first of her three books, entitled Boots and Saddles: or, Life in Dakota with General Custer (1885). Largely written as a defense of her husband's character and legacy, this book is a narrative that portrays her experience traveling with Custer and his cavalry. Praise for her first book propelled Custer into a professional writing career, during which she lectured often and wrote articles for publications such as Harper's Bazar, the Saturday Review, Lippincott's, the New York World, and the Chicago Tribune. Later, she wrote Tenting on the Plains: or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas (1887) and Following the Guidon (1890), both of which elaborated her defense of her husband's actions and reputation. Never remarrying, Custer saw it as her life's mission to change the public's perception of her late husband from foolish swashbuckler to heroic martyr. Well into her eighties, she was an active member of the Cosmopolitan Club of New York, about which she said, "The excitement of fresh contacts with leaders of my sex is the delight of my old age." (section 21)

He received an LL.B. from Columbia University Law School in 1862. De Peyster was President of the Archaeology Society from its foundation until 1889 and the first governor of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York (1892-1902). He was also President of the St. Nicholas and Orpheus Societies and of the New York Dispensary. He served as a chairman of the New York Society Library and a trustee of the Home of the Incurables, the Good Samaritan Dispensary, and of the Institute of the Deaf and Dumb. De Peyster was also a member of the Century Club. (section 7)

Chauncey Mitchell Depew was first a lawyer for New York Central Railroad, although he is best known for his position as president of the firm. A prominent leader in the Republican Party, Depew was a delegate to every Republican national convention from 1888 to 1924, though he refused nominations to be President and Secretary of State. (section 3)

William Earl Dodge was a merchant and a large stockholder in railroad enterprises. He was interested in religious and philanthropic efforts, was one of the organizers of the Young Men's Christian Association in America, and later had a prominent part in the Evangelical Alliance. From 1865 to his death in 1883, he was president of the National Temperance Society.

An 1851 graduate of Columbia College, William H. Draper went on to become a prominent New York physician after attending the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He became a member of the Bellevue Hospital staff in 1855 and in 1867 he became a lecturer on diseases of the kidneys in the Columbia Medical Department. He was also a member of the attending staff at St. Luke's, New York, and Roosevelt Hospitals. In 1886 he was the president of the New York Academy of Medicine and in 1888 he became president of the Association of American Physicians. He was also a trustee of Columbia College from 1889 until his death in 1901. (section 20)

A native of Florence, Italy, Egisto Paolo Fabbri emigrated to the United States in 1854. Residing in New York, he was employed as a bookkeeper for many years before entering the firm of John Randall & Co. in 1861. Years later in 1875, Fabbri joined the firm of Drexel, Morgan, & Co. (now JPMorgan Chase & Co.) in which J. Hood Wright was a partner. In time, Fabbri was considered "one of [the] most prominent and influential members" of this prestigious and powerful firm. However, beyond his success in the business world, Fabbri devoted a great deal of his time to charitable work, much of which he undertook anonymously. He was named a trustee of the Children's Aid Society in 1877, the same year as Theodore Roosevelt, and was actively dedicated to the Society's mission of decreasing crime and poverty rates among the city's youth. He was also a trustee of the Society of St. Johnland, an Episcopal institution designed to assist the poor. However, Fabbri was most recognized for his commitment to helping Italian immigrants and their children. He founded the Italian Home and the Italian School, which focused on providing poor Italian children with food, shelter, and access to a good education. After retiring, Fabbri returned to Florence, where he died in 1894. As one of Fabbri's former colleagues proclaimed upon his retirement, "Mr. Fabbri is one of those men of whom it can be truly said that no one in the world is the slightest degree worse for his having been in it, while many thousands are much better." (section 14)

Cyrus West Field was an industrialist who made his fortune in the paper business and formed, along with Peter Cooper and others, the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, which laid the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858. He built the elevated railroad lines in New York City between 1877 and 1879. Other activities included participation with Jay Gould in the development of the Wabash Railroad, and control of a New York newspaper, the Mail and Express. (section 8)

He began his career in New York City by accepting the chair of Pathology and Practical Medicine at Long Island College Hospital in 1861, and in the same year helped B. Fordyce Barker found the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. His endorsement of the binaural stethoscope (which he had earlier denounced) in 1866 led to its broad adoption by the medical profession. He was president of the New York Academy of Medicine, 1873; delegate to the International Medical Congress at London, 1881; and president of the American Medical Association, 1883-84.

Editor of the Century Magazine from 1881 until his death in 1909 and a poet who published sixteen volumes. He was very active in civic and social movements, raising money for the construction of the Washington Square Arch and other public projects; later he served as the chairman of the New York Tenement House Commission. (section 8)

Editor-in-chief of the New York Evening Post following the death of William Cullen Bryant in 1878; served until 1881. He presided over the meeting of the Union League Club in April 1882, at which the Giant Memorial was introduced. He was also a member of the University Club and the Century Club. (section 18)

The daughter of a Missouri slave-owner, Julia Boggs Dent became the wife of soldier Ulysses S. Grant who was appointed General-in-Chief of the Union Army, and went on to win the first presidential election following the Civil War. She actively supported both his military and political endeavors, and later helped found the New York Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (an early financial supporter of Barnard College) in 1891. After spending four years in New York City (1881-1885), Julia Grant moved back to Washington, D.C. after her husband's death. In 1897, she returned to New York for the dedication of Grant's Tomb, where she too would be buried in 1902. She was the first former First Lady to write her own memoirs; however, they were not published until 1975. (section 5)

In 1881, after his heroic role as General-in-Chief of the Union Army in the Civil War and his two terms as United States President, Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant) and his wife, Julia Dent Grant, retired to New York City. Grant spent the remaining four years of his life in New York writing his memoirs in order to save his family from bankruptcy, which had resulted from a failed business venture in the early 1880’s. Although he ultimately did receive a modest profit from the memoirs, he died shortly thereafter. After his death, funds were raised for the construction of a monument, in the largest public subscription ever undertaken at that time. In 1897, the same year that Barnard College moved to Morningside Heights, Grant's Tomb was dedicated at Riverside Drive and West 122nd Street, just three blocks from Milbank Hall. (section 5)

A Presbyterian clergyman born in County Armagh, Ireland, the Reverend Dr. John Hall came to America in 1867 to become minister of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He quickly became a leading figure in the religious life of the nation. He also wrote for the New York Ledger and was a prominent leader in education both in Ireland and in New York, becoming Chancellor of the University of the City of New York in 1881, a post he held for ten years. (section 19)

After a brief stint in as Surgeon-General of the Army during the Civil War, this neurologist established a private practice in New York. He was soon appointed lecturer on nervous and mental diseases in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1867, he became a professor at Bellevue Medical College. He transferred to the University of the City of New York in 1874 where he remained until retiring in 1888. He was also one of the founders of the Post-Graduate Medical School of New York. Hammond was a member of the Manhattan Club. (section 20)

Born in Holland, Herrman was a founder of Barnard College and a generous benefactor of numerous educational organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the New York Botanical Gardens, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, and the American Museum of Natural History. She often insisted that her contributions remain anonymous. Herrman also donated two one-thousand dollar bonds to establish the Herrman Botanical Prize at Barnard which is still given out yearly to an undergraduate student proficient in biology. (section 16)

Abram Stevens Hewitt was a politician and philanthropist who made his fortune in iron manufacturing. He and Edward Cooper (son of Peter Cooper) formed the iron manufacturing company Cooper & Hewitt in 1844, which was extremely successful. Hewitt was president of U.S. Smelting Company and of the New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad Company; vice president of the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company; and a director of the Erie Railroad, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and the Alabama Coal and Iron Company. He was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cooper Union (established by Peter Cooper, also Hewitt’s father-in-law) that drew up its founding charter. Hewitt was also very active in politics, beginning in the 1860’s when President Andrew Johnson appointed him commissioner to the Paris Exposition. Back in New York in the 1870’s, he helped to reorganize Tammany Hall. In 1874, Hewitt was elected to Congress as a Democrat. He was a member of the Congressional Committee that brought about the Compromise of 1877 that ended Reconstruction and gave the Presidency to Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1886, he won the election for mayor of New York City against Theodore Roosevelt and Henry George. His administration made many reforms, including the plan for the construction of the Rapid Transit Railroad. He was chairman of the Barnard College Board of Trustees, a trustee of Columbia University, and one of the original trustees of the Carnegie Institute. Hewitt Hall, which opened in 1925, was named in his honor. Along with his wife, Hewitt was a member of the Union Club, the Saint Nicholas Club, the Calumet Club, and the Manhattan Club. (section 8)

Sarah Amelia Cooper helped design the house at Ringwood Manor which was used by her husband Abram S. Hewitt during his political career. She was the daughter of Peter Cooper and the mother of the sisters who founded the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. An interesting note: Although married to Hewitt, when she signed the Memorial, she used her own name rather than the more conventional “Mrs. Abram S. Hewitt”. (section 8)

Charles Arthur Hollick graduated from the School of Mines at Columbia University in 1879 and became a well-known botanist. He was successively member, vice-president, and president of the Board of Park Commissioners for Staten Island, member of the Board of Education of the City of New York, one of the organizers of the Citizens Union in the Borough of Richmond, and actively connected with the nomination and election of Seth Low as fusion mayor of the city. (section 1)

An author and publisher who started his career by publishing The Rebellion Record, a collection of Civil War documents, with George P. Putnam (father of Mary Putnam Jacobi). He received his LL. B. from Columbia University Law School in 1864, the same year that he and Putnam sold The Rebellion Record. He continued in the publishing business, joining F. Leypoldt to form the firm Leypolt & Holt, later called Holt & William, and finally called Henry Holt & Company after 1873. He himself wrote many books, including Calmire, Man and Nature (1892) and Sturmsee, Man and Man (1905), which were his most popular novels. In 1913, he founded a literary magazine called The Unpopular Press, which he reluctantly changed to The Unpartisan Review. Holt edited this magazine until its forced suspension in 1921 due to the conditions following the First World War. He was also the first chairman of the New York University Settlement Society and one of the founders of the University Club. In addition, he was a member of the Century Club. (section 10)

The first artist to receive the honorary degree of LL.D. from Harvard University and a strong supporter of better education for architects. He sought to preserve traditional European architectural values in the United States, as he felt that American architecture lacked skill. He opened a studio in New York City, where he trained students in European styles. Among his students was William H. Ware, who would later develop the School of Architecture at Columbia University. Hunt was an active participant in the fine arts, serving as an architectural juror at the Paris Exposition in 1867, the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. As an architect, Hunt designed the base of the Statue of Liberty, the Lenox Library at East 70th Street (currently the home of the Frick Collection), and the Tribune Building. He was also a trustee and one of the architects of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hunt and his son designed the central Fifth Avenue façade in 1895, while Calvert Vaux designed the rear façade (now the Lehman Wing) in 1874. During his career, he received various honors and medals for his work, including the Queen’s Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1893. In 1898, a memorial to him was erected on the eastern edge of Central Park. Daniel Chester French sculpted the bust of Hunt and Bruce Price designed the colonnade. Hunt was a member of the Century Club and of the University Club.

Mary Corinna Putnam was among the first female medical practitioners in the United States and the first female medical student at the highly acclaimed Ecole de Medicine in Paris. Mary Jacobi and her husband, Abraham Jacobi (uncle of Franz Boaz), were committed "to using medicine as a source of social and political change." More specifically, Mart Jacobi's political work supported "women's higher education, women's health, the rights of working women, and ultimately, woman suffrage." It is no surprise, therefore, that Jacobi would have signed the 1992 Memorial, however it is curious that Jacobi did not sign her married name, as was her custom. Instead, she appears to have started writing "M.P. Jacobi," but then changed her mind and put Putnam instead of Jacobi, not bothering to change the previous initial P. Mary Jacobi's reaction to discrimination against women in the late Victorian era, especially in the medical world, was to promote science education for women. For thirty years, she worked to disprove theories of women's "physical weakness and mental inferiority" and she encouraged women to pursue professional careers in the male-dominated medical field. During her time at the New York Infirmary, she worked with Elizabeth Blackwell, sharing with Blackwell her concerns regarding equality, health, and independence for women. At the turn of the century, she was associated with another prominent suffragist and author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who received treatment from Dr. Jacobi for mental illness. As part of an innovative health regimen, Jacobi mandated that Gilman participate in mental and physical activities. Gilman then joined a women's basketball team, playing alongside Barnard College students. Dr. Jacobi was an associate member of the original Board of Trustees of Barnard College, serving in that capacity from 1889 until her death. A more intimate connection to Barnard: the first Dean of the College, Emily James Smith, married Jacobi's brother, George Haven Putnam, in 1899. (section 9)

A businessman and philanthropist, Morris Ketchum Jesup started a small business in 1854 handling railroad supplies, under the name Clark & Jesup that later developed into the House of M. K. Jesup. He devoted the next twenty years to banking and made his fortune in that business. He was one of the incorporators of the American Museum of Natural History and in 1868 became a trustee, and president in 1881. He gave this museum $1,000,000 in his lifetime and an equal sum in his will. After retiring in 1884, he devoted himself to dozens of religious and cultural institutions in the city. He was also president of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York for eight years, from 1899 to 1907. Jesup was a member of the University Club and the Century Club. (section 22)

Born to Moses Lazarus and Esther Nathan on July 22, 1849, Emma Lazarus was the fourth of seven children. She and her siblings were cousins to Annie Nathan Meyer, the principal founder of Barnard College. Both Moses Lazarus and Esther Nathan were from prominent New York families, allowing for a privileged upbringing that included private tutoring. Her first collection of poetry, Poems and Translations: Written Between the Ages of Fourteen and Sixteen, was published in 1866 by her father for private circulation. After the publication of her first book, her literary mentors included Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her second collection of poems, Admetus and Other Poems, was published in 1871. Though the Lazarus family was not religiously observant, Emma Lazarus progressively became more interested in her Jewish heritage, studying Hebrew and translating Jewish poets. In May of 1882, Lazarus wrote “Russian Christianity Versus Modern Judaism” in Century Magazine (edited by Richard Watson Gilder) as an angry response to an anti-Semitic article published in the previous issue. It was the start of her writing in defense of the Jewish people. The now famous poem, “The New Colossus,” was written in 1883 to benefit the Bartholdi Statue Pedestal Art Loan Exhibition. Georgina Schuyler rediscovered the poem in 1901, and in May 1903, “The New Colossus” was engraved in bronze at the base of the Statue of Liberty. In addition to writing, Lazarus helped found the Hebrew Technical Institute for Vocational Training and advocated the establishment of a Jewish national homeland. She died of cancer on November 19th, 1887 at the age of 38. (section 23)

This philanthropist and reformer first entered public works after the Civil War, in which she lost both her brother and her husband. Lowell (née Shaw) quickly got involved in the Freedman’s Association, advocating education for free blacks; in local New York hospitals; and in the State Charities Aid Association. New York Governor Samuel J. Tilden appointed her to the State Board of Charities in 1876, making her the first woman member. During her thirteen years of service on the Board, she worked on housing and reform of vagrants and the care of delinquent women, the mentally disabled , and the mentally ill. Because of her efforts, the first custodial asylum in the country was established for mentally disabled women in 1878. She is probably best known for founding the Charity Organization Society in 1882, which she led for twenty-three years. She also helped organize the Consumer’s League and worked for civil service reform. (section 25)

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Randolph Harrison McKim received a B.A. from the University of Virgina in 1861 before serving in the Confederate Army from 1861 to 1865, first as a private, then a first lieutenant aide-de-camp, and finally a chaplain. After taking a D.D. from Washington and Lee University, he moved to New York City in 1875 to become pastor of the Holy Trinity Church in Harlem. He also became chair of the city’s Church Temperance Society. It was during this period (probably late in the year 1882) that he signed the Giant Memorial. In 1888, the Rev. Dr. McKim moved to Washington, D.C. to accept the position of pastor at the Church of the Epiphany, where he remained for 32 years. In a speech delivered on October 28, 1894, McKim argued that men must be held to the same moral standards as women; he termed the double standard of morality the “vilest blot on our civilization to-day” and argued that society “must recognize and brand this evil [to] stamp out this injustice.” He also wrote several influential books, including Present Day Problems of Christian Thought (1901), which included essays such as “Christianity and Buddhism – An Antithesis” and “The Gospel of Christ and the Pseudo Gospels of the Rationalist and the Dogmatist”; and A Soldier’s Recollections: Leaves from the Diary of a Young Confederate (1910). In 1904, he received an LL.D. from George Washington University. McKim was elected Dean of the Theological Seminary of Virginia in 1897, as well as President of the House of Deputies, the lower house of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. He was also a member of the District of Columbia Sons of the Revolution, the Confederate Veterans’ Society, the Society on Colonial Wars and the Cosmos and Chevy Chase Clubs. McKim died in 1920 while playing golf in Pennsylvania. (section 21)

In the 1890's, Frances Louise Morgan (née Tracy) was one of the original members of the national roster at the Women's Medical School Fund, which enabled the establishment of Johns Hopkins University as the first medical school in the United States that was open to women. Along with her husband J.P. Morgan, Morgan was a member of the Union League Club, the Union Club, the Century Club, and the Knickerbocker Club.

In 1866, after a short association with the Smithsonian Institution, he was made Professor of Geology and Paleontology in the School of Mines of Columbia University, New York, a position which he held for the rest of his life. (section 1)

A Protestant Episcopal clergyman educated in Philadelphia, Newton accepted a position to All Souls’ Church (Anthon Memorial) located in New York City in 1869 where he remained for more than thirty years. He established a reputation as the foremost liberal preacher in the Episcopal denomination, publishing many books and articles expounding his views, including The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible (1883), for which he is most famous.

Rector of Grace Church since 1868, the Reverend Henry Codman Potter was elected Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in 1888. Potter appealed for the building of the (still-unfinished) Cathedral of St. John the Divine on 112th and Amsterdam, which was begun in 1890. Potter revolutionized clergy conventions and championed the people of New York City by decrying moral and social problems that weakened communities. Potter was a member of the University Club and one of the vice-presidents of the Century Club. (section 20)

A diplomat and journalist, Reid supported Abraham Lincoln's nomination by the Republican Party in 1860 and served as a secretary of the Republican committee for Greene County during Lincoln's campaign for the Presidency. As a reporter for the Cleveland Herald and the Cincinnati Gazette, he covered military and political issues, including the Battles of Shiloh and Gettysburg during the Civil War. In 1868, he joined the New York Tribune and in 1874 was made editor-in-chief and principal owner of the paper. He held this position until 1889, though he still retained financial control of the New York Tribune. Considered to be one of the most influential Republicans of his time, Reid was appointed minister to the French by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889. Upon his return from France, he ran for Vice President in 1892, losing to Adlai E. Stevenson. In 1905, under Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, Reid was appointed ambassador to Great Britain, a position he held until his death. Reid was a member of the Union League Club, the Union Club, the Century Club, and the Lotos Club. (section 13)

In 1880, twenty-one years before becoming President, Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, Jr. graduated from Harvard and studied law at Columbia College upon his return to New York. The next year, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he led a minority of reform-minded Republicans. He continued to be successful in state politics until the death of his wife and mother, which tragically occurred on the same day in 1884. In 1886, Roosevelt ran for mayor of New York City, losing to Abram S. Hewitt, who later became one of Barnard’s original trustees. Roosevelt was a member of the Union League Club, the University Club and the Century Club. (section 18)

Daughter of Héloïse Durant and Union Pacific Railroad tycoon Thomas Clark Durant, Ella (as she was nicknamed) attended private schools in Europe and America before becoming a book reviewer for the New York Times. She would go on to write one-act plays, poems, essays, articles and short stories. Her dramatic poem Dante (1910) was translated into Italian and is believed to be the first American play produced on the Italian stage. Three years after signing the Memorial, Ella Durant married Charles H.M. Rose. She died in Pinellas County, Florida in 1943. (section 7)

An 1867 graduate of the Columbia University School of Mines, Sachs went on to found the Sachs Collegiate Institute School for Boys, a preparatory school in New York City, which he headed for more than thirty years. Later, he founded Sachs School for Girls, which would send many young ladies on to Barnard College. In 1924, he and his wife established the Julius and Rosa Sachs Endowment Fund for Columbia University. (section 9)

Margaret Olivia Sage (née Slocum) best known as a philanthropist who supported women's suffrage, advocated the education of poor children (including Native American children) and the education of the "self-supporting" woman. She was one of the first donors and annual subscribers to Barnard College. After her husband's death, she distributed his wealth (over sixty-three million dollars) to "relief, social, and educational agencies," founding the Russell Sage Foundation in 1907. She also contributed to the Woman's Hospital of New York, the New York Exchange for Women's Work, and to the founding of Russell Sage College (previously the Troy Female Seminary) in 1918.

This politician and financier was elected to Congress in 1853 and 1855 as a Whig Representative of New York. In 1856, he left Congress and moved to New York City where he became president and director of several railroad companies and financial institutions. He is credited with being, in 1872, the originator of "puts and calls" in the stock market. He formed an alliance with Jay Gould and together they took control of the New York elevated railroads in 1881. He was also involved in the organization of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company and in the consolidation of Western Union. At his wife's urging, he presented a dormitory to the Troy Female Seminary (now Russell Sage College).

A direct descendent of Alexander Hamilton and the sister of Louisa Lee Schuyler, a social reformer, Schuyler was a patron of the New York arts. She is credited with rediscovering Emma Lazarus’ poem, “The New Colossus”, in 1901, and with raising the necessary public support to have the last five lines inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty in 1903. (sections 12 and 25)

Born September 1, 1815 in New York City into an affluent family, Stebbins explored the arts at an early age, and as an artist she worked with pastel, oil, and watercolor. In 1842, Stebbins became the seventh woman elected to the National Academy of Design, but she did not embark on her notable career as a sculptor until the age of 42, in 1857, when she left the United States to study sculpture in Rome. Initially studying in Paul Akers’ studio, she opened her own studio a short time later. During her first winter in Rome she befriended the American actress Charlotte Cushman, who would become her life-long companion. Stebbins and Cushman returned to America in the early 1870’s, spending most of their time at Cushman’s mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. Stebbins was the first woman to receive a commission for a major work of art in New York City, and it was under this commission that she would produce her most famous piece: Angel of the Waters. The fountain was unveiled in 1873 on Central Park’s Bethesda Terrace, where it still stands. The statue of Horace Mann that stands before the Boston State House and the statue of Christopher Columbus in front of the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, New York, both included among her best known works, were publicly commissioned as well. After Cushman’s death in 1876, Stebbins compiled a biography entitled Charlotte Cushman: Her Letters and Memories of Her Life (1878). She died on October 25, 1882 in New York City, only a few months before the Memorial was presented to the Columbia College Trustees. (section 6)

This critic, editor, and poet first became famous in the 1850’s, writing political songs including “Ballad of Lager Bier,” “John Brown’s Raid,” and “Honest Abe of the West” which is believed to be Lincoln’s first campaign song. During the Civil War he was a correspondent for the World and he continued publishing until his death in 1908. He was one of the founders of the Authors’ Club, President of the American Copyright League, and chairman of many other literary clubs. (section 10)

Clara Cornelia Harrison Stranahan was the author of A History of French Painting from Its Earliest to Its Latest Practice (New York: Scribner, 1888) and one of the original trustees of Barnard College, serving on the Board from 1889 to 1905.

James Samuel Thomas Stranahan was a successful railroad contractor who is best known as a servant of New York City. As president of the Brooklyn Park Board (1860-82) he was largely responsible for the creation of Prospect Park, where a statue of his was dedicated in 1891, while he was still living. He persistently supported the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883. He was hailed as one of the fathers of the greater city because of his support of the Greater New York Consolidation Plan, which made Brooklyn part of New York City in 1898.

Thomas was a famous obstetrician and gynecologist who moved to New York in 1855 to become Professor of Obstetrics in the Medical Department at the University of the City of New York. He resigned that position in 1863 to accept an appointment at the College of Physicians and Surgeons where he became Chair of Obstetrics two years later. In 1897 he became the Chair of Gynecology and in 1881 he became Professor of Clinical Gynecology, a post he held until his retirement in 1900. Thomas was a member of the Century Club.

Related to famous glass designer Louis Comfort Tiffany, C.C. Tiffany was born in 1829 in Baltimore, Maryland. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania and later graduated from the Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. After graduating, Tiffany spent two years in Germany visiting universities and studying under some of the leading theologians and scholars of the time. Upon returning to the United States, Tiffany spent seven years as pastor of the First Church (Congregational) in Derby, Connecticut until he resigned in 1864 to take a position as Army Chaplain of the Sixth Connecticut Regiment U.S. Volunteers with which he served until the end of the Civil War in 1865. In 1866 Tiffany became an ordained Episcopal minister, and served as the third rector of St. James Episcopal Church in the Bronx from 1867 to 1871. While at St. James, Tiffany was responsble for the clearing and beautification of the church grounds, part of which included planting elm trees that can still be seen today. Even after he left St. James, Tiffany’s involvement with the Church continued. Returning to New York in 1874 after three years of service at Trinity Church in Boston, he became the rector of Atonement Church on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, which merged with Zion Church in 1880. During his time at Zion, Tiffany married Julia H. Wheeler. Their wedding (considered at the time to be a major social event) was held at St. James and officiated by the most important Episcopal clergymen of the day. It was during his time at Zion that Tiffany signed the Giant Memorial. He was awarded an honorary degree as a Doctor of Divinity in 1884 from Dickinson College, and in 1893 he was unanimously elected Archdeacon of New York. He served faithfully in that position until 1904, when he resigned for health reasons. During his time as archdeacon, in another gesture to his former parish, Tiffany commissioned a stained glass window by his famous kinsman, “Lilies and Apple Blossoms”, in memory of his wife, who had died in 1902. “Lilies” is one of the most impressive of the many L.C. Tiffany windows installed at St. James between the late 19th century and 1929. Apart from his official duties, C.C. Tiffany’s life included both secular and theological pursuits: he was the author of several books on theology, and served in various positions in the American Geographical Society between 1885 and 1893.

Along with Frederick Law Olmsted, he designed Central Park, Morningside Park, Riverside Park, and Prospect Park. From 1881 to 1883 and from 1888 to 1895, Vaux served as a landscape architect to the Department of Public Parks in New York City. Vaux also designed the Museum of Natural History, the first building of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (with Jacob Wrey Mould), and the Smithsonian Institution; and helped design the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (sections 4 and 9)

A journalist and politician who was a leading figure first in the Whig Party and then in the Republican Party from 1854 until the end of Presidential Reconstruction in 1867. During the height of his influence in the late 1850’s, he was consulted by then presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. Weed also had considerable influence over appointments during Lincoln’s presidency. After Lincoln’s death and the start of Radical Reconstruction, which Weed opposed, he joined the National Union Party which marked the end of his influence in national politics. He remained active in New York state politics until his death in August 1882. (section 7)

Receiving his L.L.B. from Harvard in 1859 at age 19, Everett Pepperell Wheeler was a lawyer and a civil service reformer who helped found the Association of the Bar of the City of New York in 1869, and was responsible for reforming criminal procedure in the City of New York. Although best known as an ethical reformer in the field of public service, he strongly opposed the women’s suffrage movement. (sections 3 and 20)

Daughter of Henry B. Payne, Democratic Congressman from Ohio from 1875 to 1876 and from 1885 to 1890, Flora Payne married William Collins Whitney in 1869. She was educated in private schools in America and Europe, and while abroad she wrote letters to her father which he had privately printed. After Whitney’s husband was appointed Secretary of the Navy, they moved to Washington and she became the unofficial head of the Cleveland administration’s social affairs. When President Cleveland was accused of mistreating his wife, Whitney was vocal in defending him. Flora Payne Whitney and William Collins Whitney had five children: Harry Payne, Pauline Payne, Payne, Olive, and Dorothy Payne. Harry Payne Whitney would go on to marry Gertrude Vanderbilt, who founded the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1930. (section 8)

A descendant of the early settler John Whitney, who migrated to Watertown, Massachusetts from London in 1635, William Collins Whitney was known as a financier and politician. Graduating from Yale in 1863, Whitney attended Harvard Law School from 1863 to 1864 before his admittance to the bar in 1865. In New York, he became leader of the Young Men’s Democratic Club, an organization in opposition to Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. His marriage to Flora Payne in 1869 secured contacts with important economic and corporate interests. Whitney was a supporter of Grover Cleveland in his successful 1884 presidential campaign and was appointed Secretary of the Navy in 1885. As Secretary of the Navy, he completed the creation of the New American Navy, a project that was begun in 1881. Whitney’s involvement in the presidential campaign of 1892 ensured Cleveland’s re-nomination and eventual re-election. Following the 1892 presidential election, Whitney declined further public office, but he did attend the 1896 National Democratic Convention in Chicago as a delegate, opposing the Free Silver movement. After Flora Payne Whitney’s death in 1893, he married Edith Sibyl Randolph in 1896, a woman he had been having an affair with a few years earlier. (It is rumored that Randolph also had an affair with Frances Morgan's husband, J.P. Morgan.) Sadly, the marriage to Randolph caused a breach between Whitney and his brother-in-law Oliver Payne, who knew how his late sister had felt about her husband's mistress. The marriage to Randolph was short; she died in 1899, having suffered a tragic riding accident the previous year. Shortly thereafter, he retired from business society to devote himself to raising horses, building up a breeding farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and operating a racing stable. (section 8)

Originally from Philadelphia, J. Hood Wright was a widely known financier and philanthropist. He was a partner in Drexel, Morgan & Company (now JPMorgan Chase & Co.), which was broadly influential in banking and development in both Philadelphia and New York. He played a large role in railroad restructuring and expansion, including the reorganization of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroads. Among his many titles, Wright was president of the West Shore Railroad Company, director of the Edison General Electric Company, and director for the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. Furthermore, having been essential to its founding in 1862, he acted as president of the Manhattan Dispensary and Hospital, located at West 131st Street and Tenth Avenue. This institution, which served several thousands of people every year, was expanded in May of 1891 under Wright’s leadership. His wife, Mary Moore Wright, was also an active member of the community and an integral figure in the hospital’s founding and maintenance. Creating the Ladies’ Association of the Manhattan Dispensary and Hospital, she organized numerous events to raise money for the hospital. She was also an officer of the Madison Avenue Depository and Exchange for Woman’s Work, a large institution that sold the “handiwork of needy gentlewomen” in order to provide them with income. Like his wife, Mr. Wright also showed support for working women, attending a fundraising fair for the “Ely House,” a proposed “summer home for working girls.” Wright died of a stroke in November of 1894. At his funeral, J.P. Morgan served as one of the pall bearers. The Manhattan Dispensary and Hospital, which became J. Hood Wright Hospital in 1895, was demolished in the 1950's. One of Wright’s greatest legacies in New York City is J. Hood Wright Park, at 175th Street and Haven Avenue in Washington Heights, which was established on a 6.7 acre piece of land that was once part of his estate. In addition, Wright is now recognized for anonymously donating large sums of money to the Washington Heights Branch of the New York Public Library. His contributions greatly influenced the library’s change from a subscription-only to a free branch in 1883. A plaque near the entrance of the library honors Wright for his generous contributions. (section 14)