Attorney General: Benjamin H. Brewster
Benjamin Harris Brewster was born in Salem County, New Jersey, on October 13, 1816. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1834. That same year, he entered as a student in the law office of Eli Kirk Price of Philadelphia, and in 1838, was admitted to the bar. In 1846, Brewster was appointed by President James K. Polk to the commission to adjudicate claims growing out of the Cherokee Nation’s forced removal to the Indian Territory. He was named attorney general of Pennsylvania in 1867 by Governor John W. Geary and served in that capacity until 1869.
President Chester A. Arthur appointed Brewster as Attorney General of the United States on December 19, 1881, a position which he held until the accession of Grover Cleveland to the presidency in March 1885. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 4, 1888.
Albrecht Bernhard Uhle was born in Chemnitz, Saxony, and was brought to the United States by his parents in 1851. He received his first instruction in art from his father, attended the Pennsylvania Academy at the age of 15, and studied the Old Masters in Munich and Paris. He became interested in photography and devoted the years between 1867 and 1875 to this new medium. In 1877, Uhle opened a studio in Philadelphia and was constantly employed in painting portraits. Uhle's portrait of Attorney General Brewster was painted in 1884. Uhle died in 1930.