These portraits depict Samuel Callender Howell (1807-1896) and his wife, Sally Jane Beakes (1812-1903). From Orange County, New York, the couple married in 1834 and it is likely that these portraits were painted soon after. In the Federal and New York State census records of 1850, 1860 and 1865, the couple are listed as living in Mount Holly, Orange County and, in 1870 and 1880, Wallkill, located twenty-five miles northeast. Howell was a prosperous farmer and as this portrait shows, a well-read gentleman. As noted by David R. Allaway, the book in his portrait is David Ramsay’s History of the United States, published in 1816-1817. The couple had seven children and these portraits descended in the family before entering a private collection and first selling at auction in 1983.