Dave Brubeck, American Jazz Pianist
One of America’s most revered and respected jazz and classical pianists and composers, Dave Brubeck had a prolific career spanning six decades of performing...
W.S. Gilbert, Operetta Librettist for “The Pirates of Penzance”
William Schwenck Gilbert, one half of the successful Gilbert and Sullivan duo, had a knack for satire and an eye for staging, producing comic...
Stanley Kunitz, American Poet
Stanley Kunitz was destined to be a poet. Kunitz once said, “There was so much joy in playing with the language that I couldn’t...
Marian Wright Edelman, Children’s Defense Fund Founder
Crowned by Harper’s Bazaar as “America’s Universal Mother,” and a winner of the Library of Congress Living Legend award, Marian Wright Edelman has dedicated...
Maslow, Father of the “Hierarchy of Needs”
Best known for his theory of self-actualization, psychologist and philosopher Abraham Maslow identified a “Hierarchy of Human Needs,” noting that once basic needs were...
Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-Winning Economist
Milton Friedman was inspired by the dire financial circumstances of the Great Depression, and became convinced that economic burdens could be lifted through encouraging...
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Father of Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson—essayist, minister, poet and philosopher from New England—was the founding father of the transcendentalist movement and the creator of many literary works...
Charles Horace Mayo of the Mayo Clinic
A member of one of the most well-known families in medicine, Charles Horace Mayo was introduced to the medical profession at an early age....
Maxim Gorky, Russian Writer and Activist
Political activist, author and playwright Maxim Gorky gave a voice to the unheard majority of Russia before, during and after the Russian Revolution. From...
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), Baroque Painter
Michelangelo Merisi, popularly known as Caravaggio, spearheaded the Baroque movement, and his paintings are acclaimed for their realism and their depiction of the violent,...
