Attorney General: John W. Griggs
John William Griggs was born in Newton, New Jersey, on July 10, 1849. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1868, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He practiced law in Paterson, New Jersey. Griggs was a member of the General Assembly of New Jersey in 1876 and 1877. First elected state senator for Passaic in 1882, he was reelected in 1885. Griggs served as president of the New Jersey Senate in 1886 and was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1895.
Griggs resigned the governorship to accept appointment by President William McKinley to the post of Attorney General of the United States, serving in that position from January 1898 to March 1901. He was one of the first members appointed to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague and served from 1901 to 1912. Griggs died on November 28, 1927, in Paterson, New Jersey.
Robert Vonnoh was born in 1858 in Hartford, Connecticut, and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He was an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He was a member of many art groups including the National Academy. Vonnoh completed more than 500 commissioned portraits, which, along with his landscapes, have been widely exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. His portrait of Attorney General Griggs was painted in 1901. Vonnoh died in 1933.