Allegorical miniatures were so pervasive as tokens of bereavement that, despite their association with Christian belief, some Jewish families also commissioned them—including the Hays family, who were founding members of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City. This double memorial perpetuates the memory of two infants, Solomon and Joseph Hays, who died in 1798 and 1801, respectively. The records of Congregation Shearith Israel, largely concerned with practical issues, pause in 1798, the year of Solomon's death, to lament the human cost of a citywide scarlet fever epidemic. Solomon may have been one of its victims.

The boys probably were the sons of Jacob Hays (1772‒1849), New York’s chief of police from 1802, the year after Joseph's death, to 1849. Solomon’s blond hair forms the abstracted willow on the left; Joseph’s brown hair, the one on the right. Chopped and cut blond hair fills the earth below Solomon’s monument and the urn above; brown hair defines Joseph’s place of rest. On the reverse, the brothers’ locks plaited together unite them forever beneath their conjoined initials. The circular shape of the memorial evokes the continuity of familial affections.