William Graham, also known as William Grayham, was born in New York. Little is known of his life, except that he lived most of his life abroad. Famed painters as Frederico Del Campo, Elihu Vedder and Charles Caryl Coleman were friends.

It is known from his titles that he painted in Venice and other parts of Italy, Holland, Egypt, San Francisco and New York State; exhibiting at the Boston Art Club, the National Academy and the Pennsylvania Academy. Certainly, Venice was one of his favorite places to paint, with St. Marks Cathedral one of his greatest interests.

Venetian Scenes by Graham are found in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the New York Historical Association, Cooperstown; and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

A sale of his work, after his death in Buffalo in 1911, was held at the Albright-Knox Museum in 1912.

An interesting note is that one of the disbursements of the estate was the payment of a debt of 2,065 Italian Lire($395.77 at the time) to Elihu Vedder.