Walter White was born on April 23, 1811, in Reading, Berkshire, England.

He was a librarian and writer. He was educated at two local private schools. At fourteen, White left school to work in his father’s upholstering and cabinet-making business. He spent much of his leisure time reading and studying French, German, and Latin. In 1834, soon after his marriage, he moved his family to the United States in hopes of a better life. White plied his trade in New York City and Poughkeepsie without improving his circumstances and finding the cold winters hard to endure. His account of the emigrant's life, “A Working Man's Recollections of America”, was published in 1846. The family returned to England in 1839, where White rejoined his father's business, but in 1842, he left for London. He worked first as secretary to Joseph Mainzer, a music teacher, and later as an attendant in the Royal Society's library. He became involved in the process of cataloguing and in 1861, he was promoted to assistant secretary. In 1845, White's wife left him, and he was obliged to dispose of the family house. Only his eldest son remained with him. During this time, White wrote extensively for Chambers's Edinburgh Journal and other serials.

In 1830, he married Maria Hamilton (1806–1850). He died on July 18, 1893, in London, England.

Thomas White was born on August 7, 1830, in Montreal, Quebec.

He was a journalist and politician. He was educated at the High School of Montreal, then worked at several jobs in Montreal and Peterborough, Ontario, before entering the printing trade with the Queen's Printer in Toronto in 1850. He relocated to Quebec City in 1851 when the office moved there. In 1852, he joined the editorial staff of the Canada Gazette. He returned to Peterborough in 1853 to found the Peterborough Review with his brother-in-law. He also served as reeve of Peterborough. From 1860 to 1864, he studied law with Sidney Smith in Cobourg but soon returned to journalism. In 1864, White moved to Hamilton to take over the operation of the Daily Spectator and Journal of Commerce. In 1870, with his brother Richard, they bought control of the Montreal Gazette, the leading Conservative newspaper in Canada. White was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1878 elections representing the riding of Cardwell and was re-elected in 1882 and 1887. He also served as Minister of the Interior (1887) and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs (1888).

In 1853, he married Eleanor Vine (1836–1934). He died on April 21, 1888, in Ottawa, Ontario.

Taylor White FRS (21 December 1701 – 27 March 1772) was a British jurist, naturalist, and collector. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was also a founding governor of the Foundling Hospital in London and served as its treasurer for many years. Beginning in the 1730s, White began to assemble a “paper museum”. He commissioned a number of artists, in particular Peter Paillou (from a French Huguenot émigré family in London) and Charles Collins (an Irish painter of still lifes and animals) to paint mammals, reptiles, fish and birds. He was also an avid collector of botanical drawings, and commissioned works from both Jacob van Huysum and the celebrated Georg Dionysius Ehret.

Taylor White’s extensive collection of bird and animal skins, live and mounted specimens, curiosities, and his collection of original drawings, was well known in his time. He was a member of a network of naturalists and amateurs that included Sir Hans Sloane (founder of the British Museum), Thomas Pennant (the first zoogeographer), Joseph Banks (explorer and President of the Royal Society), and George Edwards (author and artist). He left little correspondence and few publications. His collection of watercolours of animal specimens, from his and others’ collections, was preserved by the White family until 1927, when the zoological drawings and his manuscript catalogue were acquired by Dr. Casey Wood for what is now the Blacker Wood Collection