Although Field received little formal art instruction, his imagination sought to express itself in the more complex themes of history and religion. Between 1865 and 1880, the artist painted a series of compositions drawn from the Bible, illustrating the Plagues of Egypt (collections of National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia), and around 1880 he executed a series celebrating General Ulysses S. Grant's trip around the world. It was part of th♒is latter series that this painꦚting was created.

General Ulysses S. Grant, having completed a term in office as President of the United States, set forth on a tour in England, The Holy Land, Asia, Constantinople, Greece, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, and Paris between May of 1877 and May of 1879, seeking a prolonged rest after serving his country for sixteen years. He was accompanied by his wife and son, Jesse, and by the author, John Russell Young, whose chronicles of the trip were first published in the New York Herald and again by the American News Company in a two-volume book, Around the World with General Grant, in 1879.

While a♑ variety of locales would have sparked Field's imagination, the formal visit made by General Grant to Hartford, Connecticut in 1880 would have served as impetus for the artist to paint a series on Grant's trip. Rather than seek contemporary views, Field referenced the prints of the 1862 tour made by the Prince of Wales to Italy and Constantinople. The military costumes in this painting are mid-19th century British. Waiting on shore to welcome the ex-President as he sails into Constantinople Harbor are his majesty, the Sultan Abdul Hamid (far left foreground), the diplomatic representatives of the United States, and Americans living in the area.

The pain☂ting is archaeologically and topographical🃏ly correct, including the Haiga Sophia cathedral center left. Field has reworked pictorial details; however, adding embellishments such as Classical columns and Oriental minarets - elements that undoubtedly elude to the philosophical basis for the series.