Benjamin Trott was born in Boston and met Gilbert Stuart in New York in 1793. He then followed the elder artist to Philadelphia to make miniatures of Stuart's portraits, particularly those of Washington. Stuart called Trott the “best and closest” of his imitators. He traveled extensively during his career, producing miniatures during his several stays in Philadelphia and in New York City as well as sojourns in Albany, western Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Norfolk, Charleston, Newark, Baltimore, and Boston. During one of his stays in Philadelphia, he shared a studio with Thomas Sully, and he exhibited miniatures at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1811 and in 1812. While considered to be an outstanding miniaturist, his later work is uneven in quality.