Nicholas Gilman (1755-1814) was a member of the prominent and politically active Gilman family of Exeter, New Hampshire. A captain and tehn adjutant-general in the Revolutionary war, Gilman was a delegate to Congress from 1786-1788, and along with John Langdon represented New Hampshire in the Constitutional Convention in 1787.. Gilman then served in the First Federal Congress of 1789-1791, a post which he held until 197. A long-time Federalist, Gilman changed his party affiliation after an 1802 appointment by President Jefferson and was elected to the state Senate as a Jeffersonian Republican in 1804; he continued to serve as a Senator until his death in 1814 (Dictionary of American Biography IV, (New York, 1931/32), pp. 304-305, Turner, The Ninth State (Chapel Hills, N.C., 1983).

Born in Ireland, John Ramage (1748-1802) worked as a goldsmith and miniaturist in Boston previous to the Revolution. After fighting in Nova Scotia on the side of the the King, he moved to British occupied New York in 1777 in search of commissions, where he became widely acclaimed and ironically painted many of the Revolutionary leaders including miniatures of George and Martha Washington. It was during Ramage's time in New York that he painted this portrait of Gilman who must have visited the city during his travels to Philadelphia. The chased scalloped gold border of the miniature frame was used frequently by Ramage and was likely a product of his goldsmithing skills (see Johnson, American Portrait Miniatures, (New York, 1990), pp. 181-184).