Franklin Sidway (July 7, 1834 – March 20, 1920) was an American businessman and banker from Buffalo, New York, known for building the Sidway Building in Buffalo, the Spaulding-Sidway house in Grand Island, and commissioning the 1865 painting, Interior with Portraits, by American artist Thomas Le Clear.

[2] During the American Civil War, Sidway was commissioned as colonel of volunteers with the authority to raise a regiment.

He recruited several companies, however, when payment of bounties was discontinued, the organization was not completed and the enlisted men were transferred to another regiment.

[1] Franklin and Charlotte enjoyed traveling, sailing on the St. Louis in 1899 between Southampton, England, and New York City,[4] and spending time at the Government House in 1895 in the Bahamas.

[6] In 1865, Sidway commissioned American artist Thomas Le Clear to paint Interior with Portraits.

The painting is a genre scene that features two children, James and Parnell Sidway, posing for a photograph in an artist's studio.

[8] The likenesses of the subjects as children were painted from family daguerreotypes,[7] as some painters of the time regarded photography with suspicion and refused to use photographs as references for portraits.