Sampson Vryling Stoddard Wilder

Born in 1780, he is best remembered as a New England businessman who became one of the prominent foreign merchants in the Hawaiian Islands during the early 19th century. He lived in Honolulu, took part in the commercial life of the islands, and later served the Hawaiian Kingdom in diplomatic work in the United States.

He also wrote about his life and beliefs. His book Records from the Life of S. V. S. Wilder, published in 1865, shows a man interested not only in business and public affairs but also in religion, morality, and the meaning of personal experience.

A surviving portrait by John Vanderlyn, now noted through the Worcester Art Museum, suggests the status he held in his own time. He died in 1865, leaving behind a life that connects early American commerce, missionary-era Hawaii, and 19th-century memoir writing.