W.E.B. Du Bois, Civil Rights Pioneer and Social Historian
A tireless activist and scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote “The Souls of Black Folk” and was a founding member of the National Association for...
Rainer Maria Rilke, Author of “Letters to a Young Poet”
Rainer Maria Rilke spent his life traveling the globe. Despite a variety of lovers and locales—Prague, Munich, Rome, Paris and Switzerland—Rilke remained alone, seeking...
Joseph Lee, Father of the Playground Movement
Joseph Lee dedicated his life to promoting recreation and play for children and adults alike, and is best known for transforming a fledgling playground...
Charles Atlas, Famed Bodybuilder
Legendary bodybuilder Charles Atlas became an icon in the 1920s as the man who transformed himself from a skinny weakling into a muscle-bound celebrity.
Charles...
John Foster Dulles, Former Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles was hailed as a “master craftsman” of foreign policy. Decades before his work as secretary of state under President Dwight Eisenhower,...
Allen Ginsberg, Beat Poet
Allen Ginsberg helped launch a literary revolution in the United States during the mid-20th century. As a central figure in the Beat generation, Ginsberg’s...
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...
Meriwether Lewis, Western Explorer
Along with William Clark, Meriwether Lewis led the first expedition through the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, revealing the landscape and nature of the...
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....
Connie Chung, Award-Winning Journalist
American journalist Connie Chung forged new territory in network news and broadcast journalism. As the first Asian American and second woman to be a...
