Anna Catharine Dean (12 May 1817 - 1901) and her sister Elizabeth (23 August 1814 - 21 February 1899) were the seventh and sixth children, respectively, of nine born to Robert and Susan Padelford Dean of Taunton, Massachusetts. The Dean homestead, also illustrated on this page, still stands on Williams Street, and it was in this home that the Dean sisters grew up. Robert Dean supported his family as a cotton merchant at a time when the America's growing textile industry created an economic boom for many New England communities. Although Anna Catharine Dean subsequently married, Elizabeth Dean remained a spinster.

Like the Dean sisters, Robert Peckham was also a Massachusetts native. Born in Petersham, Peckham was married in 1813 in Bolton, where he lived with his wife, Ruth Wolcott Sawyer. Although the Peckham's moved several times, first to Northampton, then back to Bolton, they settled in Westminster in 1821. Peckham was appointed minister of the First Congregational Church in 1828, and remained in that position until 1842. Peckham took an active stand on several of the highly charged issues of his day, including the abolitionist (his house was a stop on the underground railroad) and temperance movements. In addition to this work, he also supported his family by farming and painting portraits.

A related wallpaper-backed pastel double portrait of two sisters that descended in the Peckham family was illustrated and sold, Northeast Auctions, Hampton, New Hampshire, August 6 & 7, 1994, lot 550.