Whitelaw Reid was the longtime editor of the New York Tribune and a close friend of Horace Greeley. He served as United States Ambassador to France from 1889 to 1892, when he became the Republican vice presidential nominee on a ticket headed by incumbent President Benjamin Harrison. In 1905, Reid was named Ambassador to Great Britain and remained in this post until his death in 1912 during the Taft presidency.
An 11 by 14 inch Moffat photograph of Taft as President, from his Summer White House in Beverly, Mass., August 30, 1909, inscribed and signed “For Whitelaw Reid, with warm regards, Wm. H. Taft.”