Joseph Seligman was an American banker and businessman who founded J. & W. Seligman & Co. He was the patriarch of what became known as the Seligman family in the United States and related to the wealthy Guggenheim family through Peggy Guggenheim's mother Florette.

Alexander Turney Stewart was an American entrepreneur who moved to New York and made his multimillion-dollar fortune in the most extensive and lucrative dry goods store in the world.