Quincy Porter was an American composer of classical music. He studied with Ernest Bloch and Vincent d'Indy, held faculty positions at several leading American music schools, and earned the Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for one of his concertos.

The photograph is by the Pach Brothers, German immigrants who opened a studio in New York in 1866 and took thousands of portraits, including some of American presidents. The business remained operational until 1994.