Attorney General: George W. Wickersham
George Woodward Wickersham was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 19, 1858. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1880. In 1901, that university conferred upon him an honorary master’s degree. Before graduation he had been admitted to the Philadelphia bar and practiced there until 1882. In 1883, Wickersham entered the New York law firm of Strong and Cadwalader, becoming a partner in the firm four years later. Specializing in bankruptcies and corporate reorganizations, his clients included leading transportation and manufacturing companies.
Wickersham held the office of Attorney General of the United States from March 1909 to March 1913 during President William Howard Taft’s administration. Shortly after the United States entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to serve on the War Trade Board to Cuba. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover named him head of the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement, also known as the Wickersham Commission. Wickersham died in New York City on January 25, 1936.
Born in Clermont-Ferrand, France, on April 18, 1862, Chabannes La Palice was a student of Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. His paintings and sculpture were exhibited in Paris during the early 1900s. The portrait of Attorney General Wickersham was painted in 1913. He died in 1928.