Founders and major American figures
Biographies of presidents, founders, military leaders, justices, reformers, and other figures who shaped American history.
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Showing 1-24 of 216 people
A
14 profiles on this page
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr rose from Revolutionary War service to the vice presidency in 1801-1805, then saw the Hamilton duel and Burr...
Abigail Adams
Through letters written between 1776 and 1800, Abigail Adams became a political confidante within the Adams family circl...
Abraham Baldwin
After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Abraham Baldwin carried Georgia into the new federal order and helped found...
Abraham Clark
In 1776 Abraham Clark carried New Jersey into the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, and late...
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln used the presidency from 1861 to 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation, and wartime leadership to preserve...
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell turned experiments in acoustics and the 1876 telephone patent into a communications revolution tha...
Alexander Hamilton
From the Constitutional Convention in 1787 through the Treasury program of 1790-1791, Alexander Hamilton shaped the fisc...
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville turned a French prison-inspection journey in 1831-1832 into Democracy in America, one of the defin...
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie used steel, railroads, and vertical integration after the 1870s to build Carnegie Steel and define indus...
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson moved from frontier law and the Battle of New Orleans to the presidency in 1829-1837, reshaping executive...
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson moved from Unionism in Tennessee to the presidency in 1865-1869, where impeachment and resistance to Reco...
Andrew Mellon
Andrew Mellon used the Treasury Department from 1921 to 1932 and his banking fortune to shape tax policy, debt reduction...
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia used the Supreme Court from 1986 to 2016 to popularize originalism, textualism, and a combative conservat...
Arthur Middleton
Arthur Middleton used the South Carolina Provincial Congress and the Continental Congress in 1776 to push independence,...
B
8 profiles on this page
Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwaters 1964 presidential campaign and long Senate career turned modern conservatism, anti-New Deal politics, a...
Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker used astronomy, almanacs, and the 1791 federal survey of Washington to make scientific work by a free...
Benjamin Franklin
Between 1754 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Benjamin Franklin moved from colonial printer to indispensable diplomat, l...
Benjamin Harrison
From the Continental Congress in 1774 to the Virginia governorship in 1781-1784, Benjamin Harrison carried plantation le...
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush turned medical training in Philadelphia and Edinburgh into Revolutionary service, signing the Declaration...
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington built Tuskegee Institute after 1881 and became the most influential Black educational leader in the...
Brigham Young
Brigham Young turned Mormon migration after 1846 into a settlement empire centered on Great Salt Lake City, shaping reli...
Button Gwinnett
In Georgia's turbulent politics of 1776-1777, Button Gwinnett signed the Declaration of Independence and briefly steered...
C
2 profiles on this page
Caesar Rodney
Caesar Rodney carried Delaware from colonial protest to the Declaration in 1776, using provincial office, militia leader...
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge used the presidency from 1923 to 1929 to champion limited government, tax reduction, and business confid...