"Samuel Ward McAllister (December 28, 1827 - January 31, 1895) was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of late 19th-century America. He was widely accepted as the authority as to which families could be classified as the cream of New York society (the Four Hundred). But his listings were also questioned by those excluded from them, and his own personal motives of self-aggrandizement were noted." Married, with three children, he died alone and disgraced. His cousin was the founder of the Girl Scouts, Julia Ward Howe.
The sergeant who introduces Clara Barton wears the membership medal of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization of veterans of the Civil War. Clara herself wears the membership medal of the Women's Relief Corps, an auxiliary of the GAR, although the ribbon on the medal is incorrect. Another woman in the crowd wears the WRC medal with the proper ribbon.