One of the leading men in colonial Pennsylvania, Thomas Mifflin (1744–1800) later became governor of the state and a member of the legislature. During the Revolutionary War, he served with Trumbull as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington. Trumbull painted this miniature portrait at the same time as the nearly identical example in the collection of Yale University Art Gallery. Trumbull used the miniature portraits for depictions of Mifflin in two of his major history paintings, "The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton" and "The Resignation of General Washington" (both Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.).