James Lorimer Graham, Jr., aka 'Lorry' or 'Lorrie' Graham b. New York City 1831, stone says 1835, but 1831 is accurate, will do as stone reads. He was educated in New York until the age of sixteen at which point he was sent to Amiens, France to complete his education. He lived there for a time with a cousin while pursuing his studies but would ultimately travel to Paris to complete his education. During his sojourn abroad he became a proficient French scholar and retained his fluency and perfect accent all his life. As such, he was often mistaken for a Frenchman.
On November 19, 1855, he married Josephine 'Josey' A. Garner (1837-1892), the daughter of Mr. Thomas Garner, a prominent and wealthy merchant of New York and sister of Commodore William T. Garner. In New York City he lived at 3 E. 17th Street, while in Florence he resided at Casa Guidi, Palazzo di Valfonda and Via Manzoni. His homes were always opened, with the most free and bountiful hospitality, to his countrymen, and very few who visited Florence escaped a welcome there.
It has been suggested that, even if married, Graham was gay.
He was friends with painters and sculptors: John Frederick Kensett, Frederic Edwin Church, Régis François Gignoux, Emanuel Leutze, John Cranch and Christopher Pearse Cranch, Eastman Johnson, William Holman Hunt, Hiram Powers, George Henry Boughton, F. O. C. Darley, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Couture, George Henry Yewell, Thomas Ball, Jervis McEntee, Launt Thompson; writers in prose and verse: Bayard Taylor, Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Charles Astor Bristed, George Perkins Marsh, Robert Browning, Anthony Trollope, Richard Henry Stoddard, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Adelaide Anne Procter, Thomas Buchanan Read, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry James, Alexander Wheelock Thayer; actors, statesmen and men of affairs: John Lorimer Worden, George B. McClellan, Cardinal John McCloskey, Charlotte Cushman, and Edwin Booth.
He died on June 30, 1876, in Florence, and is buried inside the English Cemetery, Florence, the medallion on his tombstone is by Launt Thompson. Bayard Taylor wrote his obituary in The New York Tribune. His wife later remarried to Giuseppe Mateini.
He left his Library and collections to the Century Association of New York.
Graham is said to have loved the literature and art of France and England as much as those of his own country. His love of literature and the arts led to jobs as a librarian and as the editor of Putnam's Magazine, a monthly periodical featuring American literature and articles on science, art, and politics. Graham served in Florence first as U.S. Consul General, then as U.S. Consul until his death in 1876.