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...
Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-Winning Author
Toni Morrison grew up in a house of African-American storytellers and developed a love for books. After earning a masters degree in English and...
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...
Martin Scorsese, Director of “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull”
“It’s easy to think of Scorsese as a kind of poet of the underworld,” the American Film Institute reflected when they granted him a...
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...
Anna Freud, Pioneer in Child Psychoanalysis
Tirelessly devoted to both her renowned father and his revolutionary but controversial psychoanalytic theory, Anna Freud was Sigmund Freud’s youngest daughter, and sole heir...
Georges Seurat, Pointillist Painter
Although his artistic career lasted only a decade, Georges Seurat’s influence has stood the test of time. Popularized with his famous work “Sunday Afternoon...
Hans Christian Andersen, Poet and Author of Fairy Tales
Fairy tales may seem to have existed since the beginning of storytelling, but Hans Christian Andersen is the acknowledged father of the modern form....
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...
James P. Johnson, Jazz Pianist
The 1920s were a dynamic time in American history. Flappers tested the limits of fashion. Bootleg liquor fought prohibition. In music, the era became...
