Lloyd Griscom was born on November 4, 1872 at Riverton, New Jersey. He graduated in 1891 from the law department of University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Sigma Chapter of the Zeta Psi Fraternity. Griscom continued his legal studies at the New York Law School. In 1893–1894 Griscom served in the United Kingdom as secretary to Ambassador Thomas Bayard; in 1897 he was deputy district attorney of New York; and during the Spanish–American War he served as captain and assistant quartermaster.

After a short period as Secretary of Legation and chargé d' affaires at Constantinople, Griscom was appointed Minister to Persia in 1901. He held the corresponding post in Japan (1902–1906) and was ambassador to Brazil (1906–1907) and to Italy (1907–1909). In 1911 he became a member of the law firm of Beekman, Menken, and Griscom, New York City, and was thereafter active in local Republican politics. He contributed numerous articles to the Philadelphia Sunday Press on travel in Central America. In 1917 he was appointed a major in the department of the Adjutant-General of the United States Army and afterwards became Assistant Adjutant-General.

Griscom's primary significance was as an advocate for globalized free trade as a means to promote peaceful development in accordance with his Quaker faith. In the Middle East he worked for better relations between Muslims and Christians, and he played a major role in the relief effort in Italy after the 1908 Messina earthquake took 50,000 lives. Prior to the death of Secretary of State John Hay in 1905, Griscom was offered the post of First Assistant Secretary of State. The appointment of Elihu Root to succeed Hay nullified Griscom's appointment to the State Department position.

Following his retirement from public service, he bought and became the publisher of several Long Island newspapers, including the East Norwich Enterprise, the North Hempstead Record, and the Na