Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
Rosa Parks was a seamstress and NAACP secretary whose simple act of civil disobedience—her refusal to give up her seat on the bus to...
Samuel Lightnin’ Hopkins, Pioneer of Texas Blues
Blending southern poetry and a loose, all-encompassing handling of the guitar, Lightnin’ Hopkins brought a Texas accent to the masses with one of the...
Niccolò Machiavelli, Author of “The Prince”
Niccolò Machiavelli lived through one of the most tumultuous periods in Italian history. An early alliance with the wrong faction suspended his political career;...
Walt Whitman, “America’s Poet”
Walt Whitman helped transform the literary scene in the United States during the 19th century, becoming one of the most influential poets of his...
William Shakespeare, Playwright, Poet and Actor
“He was not for an age but for all time,” said Ben Jonson in the dedication to William Shakespeare’s 1623 First Folio. It may...
T.S. Eliot, Nobel Prize Winning Writer
As a philosopher, theologian, poet, playwright and essayist working in the early 20th century, T.S. Eliot saw and described the American and European landscape...
James Audubon, Artist, Ornithologist and Naturalist
Many a bird watcher will recognize the name of John James Audubon, the famous naturalist who made a name for himself by painting and...
Ingrid Bergman, Star of “Casablanca”
“I work so hard before the camera and on the stage that I have neither the desire nor the energy to act in my...
Nelson Mandela, First Black President of South Africa
Nelson Mandela was elected during the first election when South African blacks were allowed to vote. A leader of the resistance for years, Mandela...
Cal Ripken, Jr., Baseball’s “Iron Man”
Cal Ripken, Jr. revolutionized the shortstop position while playing in a record 2,632 consecutive games, all for the Baltimore Orioles. His record-breaking 2,130th straight...
