William R. Hope was born on May 18, 1863, in Montreal, Quebec.

He was a prominent Canadian painter, draftsman, and war artist noted for his landscapes. Born into a wealthy family in Montreal, Quebec, he traveled to Paris in the 1880s to study art, frequently practicing in the Forest of Fontainebleau. Afterward, he continued his studies in the Netherlands and Italy. Returning to Montreal, he quickly became an influential member of the Montreal art community and of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, to which he was elected a member of the council in 1906. In 1890, he founded the Pen and Pencil Club of Montreal. As women were not allowed to join, it helped precipitate the creation of the Women's Art Association of Canada in 1894.

In 1897, he married Constance Kingsmill Jarvis. He died on February 5, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec.

Sir James Archibald Hope was a British general born in 1785. He joined the British Army in 1800 and, though he began his service in Nova Scotia, was active in the Peninsular War during the Napoleonic Wars. He rose through the ranks and had a successful career, serving as a staff officer to Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope, as an Aide-de Camp to General Thomas Graham, as Captain and Lieutenant-Colonel with the 3rd foot guards, and as Major-General in Lower Canada. He achieved the title of General in 1859 and received the GCB among other honours. Hope was married to Christiana Elizabeth, and they had three children together.

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker was born on June 30, 1817, in Halesworth, Suffolk, England, the second son of the distinguished botanist, Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865).

He was a British botanist, explorer, and supporter of Darwin’s theories. At 15 he began to attend classes at the University of Glasgow, at first in classics and mathematics and later in medicine (M.D., 1839). Having a wide knowledge of botany based on work in his father's herbarium and on extensive plant-collecting in the British Isles, his degree enabled him to join the Naval Medical Service and to accompany a scientific expedition to the Antarctic (1839-1843). He became assistant director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (1855-1865). In 1865, he succeeded his father as director, serving in that capacity until his retirement in 1885. His last major botanical expedition to the Rocky Mountains and California (1877), led to the publication of several important papers concerning the relationship of American and Asian floras. His travels resulted in the discovery of species new to science, many of which were soon introduced to horticultural circles. He gained an international reputation as a pioneer plant geographer. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1842 and of the Royal Society in 1847. He also served as president of the Royal Society (1873–1878) and was knighted in 1877.

In 1851, he married Frances Harriet Henslow (1825–1874) and in 1877, he married Hyacinth Symonds (1842–1921). He died on December 10, 1911, in Sunningdale, Berkshire, England.