Mary Lyon, Champion of Women’s Higher Education

Mary Lyon was a progressive educator and pioneer of women’s higher education. In 1837 she founded the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley,...

Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States

Some consider Ronald Reagan the greatest president in contemporary American history: under his watch, the country saw the longest period of peacetime prosperity in...

Shigeru Miyamoto, Father of Modern Video Games

Beginning with the seminal arcade game Donkey Kong nearly three decades ago, Nintendo’s chief game developer and the father of modern video games, Shigeru...

Al Hirschfeld, Caricature Artist

Al Hirschfeld demonstrated prodigious artistic talent at an early age. As an adult, his technique was deceptively simple; he harnessed the power of a...

William Faulkner, American Novelist

William Faulkner, revered modernist writer, historian and sociologist, is known for capturing the raw beauty of the rural South in all its dark complexity....

Miriam Makeba, Singer and Anti-Apartheid Activist

Miriam Makeba, widely known as “Mama Africa,” was exiled from her home of South Africa for her revolutionary words and songs, but was widely...

Pablo Picasso, Groundbreaking Painter

From his Cubist works to his famous Blue Period, painter Pablo Picasso changed the face of art forever. Picasso's Early Days Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born...

Isadora Duncan, Mother of Modern Dance

One of the most active dancers and choreographers of her time, Isadora Duncan is considered the inventor of Modern Dance. Using dance to express...

Hedy Lamarr, Actress and Inventor

Hedy Lamarr was a woman perpetually ahead of her time. She shocked the world with some racy roles in the 1930s, and a decade...

Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Engineer and Psychologist

Lillian Moller Gilbreth fought the social conventions of her time to become one of the first PhD-holding female engineers. She was also a psychologist...