American History Atlas

Historical Figures

Leaders, activists, thinkers, and ordinary people who changed the course of events.

52 entries, in chronological order

Colonial America1607–1763

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Siffred Duplessis

1706–1790Person

Benjamin Franklin

Printer, scientist, diplomat, and the Revolution’s elder statesman

Revolution and Independence1763–1789

Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart

1732–1799Person

George Washington

Commander of the Continental Army and first president

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale

1743–1826Person

Thomas Jefferson

Author of the Declaration of Independence and third president

Portrait of Abigail Adams

1744–1818Person

Abigail Adams

Political partner, letter writer, and early voice for women’s rights

Portrait of James Madison

1751–1836Person

James Madison

Architect of the Constitution and fourth president

Portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull

1757 (disputed)–1804Person

Alexander Hamilton

First secretary of the Treasury and architect of the federal financial system

The Early Republic1789–1828

Portrait of John Adams by Gilbert Stuart

1735–1826Person

John Adams

Revolutionary leader, diplomat, and second president, who kept the young nation out of war with France

Portrait of Chief Justice John Marshall

1755–1835Person

John Marshall

Fourth Chief Justice, who made the Supreme Court a co-equal branch

Portrait of Tecumseh

c. 1768–1813Person

Tecumseh

Shawnee leader who built a confederacy of Native nations

Alice Cooper’s statue of Sacagawea at the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon

c. 1788–c. 1812Person

Sacagawea

The Lemhi Shoshone teenager who traveled with Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery

Expansion and Sectional Conflict1828–1860

Portrait of Andrew Jackson

1767–1845Person

Andrew Jackson

Seventh president, champion of the “common man,” and architect of Indian removal

Photograph of Sojourner Truth

c. 1797–1883Person

Sojourner Truth

Abolitionist and women’s rights speaker who escaped slavery in New York

Daguerreotype of John Brown with his hand raised

1800–1859Person

John Brown

Abolitionist who led the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry

Photograph of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1815–1902Person

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Philosopher and strategist of the women’s rights movement

Photograph of Frederick Douglass

1818–1895Person

Frederick Douglass

Escaped slave, orator, editor, and the foremost Black leader of the nineteenth century

Photograph of Harriet Tubman seated

c. 1822–1913Person

Harriet Tubman

Freedom seeker, Underground Railroad conductor, Union scout

Civil War and Reconstruction1861–1877

Photograph of Abraham Lincoln

1809–1865Person

Abraham Lincoln

Sixteenth president, who preserved the Union and ended slavery

Photograph of Ulysses S. Grant

1822–1885Person

Ulysses S. Grant

Union general who won the Civil War and eighteenth president

Industrialization and the Gilded Age1877–1900

Photograph of Susan B. Anthony

1820–1906Person

Susan B. Anthony

Organizer and public face of the woman suffrage movement

Photograph of Sitting Bull

c. 1831–1890Person

Sitting Bull

Hunkpapa Lakota leader who refused the reservation

Photograph of Andrew Carnegie

1835–1919Person

Andrew Carnegie

Steel magnate and philanthropist of the Gilded Age

Mark Twain in a white suit, photographed in his later years

1835–1910Person

Mark Twain

Humorist and novelist who turned American speech into literature

Portrait photograph of Thomas Edison, seated, around 1922

1847–1931Person

Thomas Edison

Inventor of the phonograph and a practical electric light, and creator of the modern research laboratory

Photograph of Booker T. Washington

1856–1915Person

Booker T. Washington

Educator and the most influential Black leader of his generation

Portrait photograph of Ida B. Wells

1862–1931Person

Ida B. Wells

Journalist who exposed lynching and fought for civil rights and suffrage

The Progressive Era and World War I1900–1920

Photograph of Woodrow Wilson

born 1856Person

Woodrow Wilson

Twenty-eighth president: progressive reformer, wartime leader, and segregationist

Photograph of Theodore Roosevelt

1858–1919Person

Theodore Roosevelt

Twenty-sixth president and champion of the “Square Deal”

Portrait photograph of Henry Ford, about 1919

1863–1947Person

Henry Ford

Automaker who put America on wheels with the Model T, the moving assembly line, and the Five Dollar Day

Photograph of W. E. B. Du Bois

1868 (disputed)–1963Person

W. E. B. Du Bois

Scholar, editor, and co-founder of the NAACP

The Twenties and the Great Depression1920–1939

Photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt

1882–1945Person

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Thirty-second president, architect of the New Deal and wartime leader

Photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt

1884–1962Person

Eleanor Roosevelt

First lady, reformer, and champion of human rights

Babe Ruth in his first year with the New York Yankees, 1920

1895–1948Person

Babe Ruth

The slugger who transformed baseball and became the most celebrated athlete of the 1920s

Photograph of Amelia Earhart in 1935

1897–1937Person

Amelia Earhart

The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, who vanished over the Pacific in 1937

Louis Armstrong holding his trumpet, smiling

1901–1971Person

Louis Armstrong

New Orleans trumpeter and singer who made jazz a soloist’s art and a world music

Walt Disney on the Place de la Concorde in Paris in 1935

1901–1966Person

Walt Disney

Creator of Mickey Mouse, the animated feature film, and Disneyland

World War II and the Early Cold War1939–1960

Official portrait photograph of Harry S. Truman

1884–1972Person

Harry S. Truman

Thirty-third president: ended World War II and launched the Cold War containment policy

Official portrait photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959

1890–1969Person

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Commander of the D-Day invasion and thirty-fourth president, who presided over the prosperous, anxious 1950s

Jackie Robinson in the uniform of the Kansas City Monarchs

1919–1972Person

Jackie Robinson

The ballplayer who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, and a civil rights advocate

Publicity photograph of Elvis Presley for the 1957 film Jailhouse Rock

1935–1977Person

Elvis Presley

The “King of Rock & Roll,” who carried a blend of Black and white Southern music to a mass audience

Civil Rights and Social Transformation1954–1980

Photograph of Justice Thurgood Marshall

1908–1993Person

Thurgood Marshall

Civil rights lawyer and first Black justice of the Supreme Court

Official portrait photograph of Lyndon B. Johnson

1908–1973Person

Lyndon B. Johnson

Thirty-sixth president: the Great Society, civil rights, and Vietnam

Official presidential portrait photograph of Richard Nixon, 1972

1913–1994Person

Richard Nixon

Thirty-seventh president: opened relations with China, then became the only president to resign

Photograph of Rosa Parks

1913–2005Person

Rosa Parks

Activist whose arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott

Official White House portrait photograph of President John F. Kennedy, July 1963

1917–1963Person

John F. Kennedy

Thirty-fifth president: the youngest ever elected, assassinated in Dallas in 1963

Photograph of Malcolm X

1925–1965Person

Malcolm X

Black nationalist leader and critic of nonviolence

Photograph of Cesar Chavez

1927–1993Person

Cesar Chavez

Labor leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers

Photograph of Martin Luther King Jr.

1929–1968Person

Martin Luther King Jr.

Minister and leader of the nonviolent civil rights movement

Portrait photograph of Muhammad Ali in 1967

1942–2016Person

Muhammad Ali

Three-time heavyweight champion who gave up his title rather than fight in Vietnam

Conservative Realignment and the End of the Cold War1980–2001

Official portrait of Ronald Reagan

1911–2004Person

Ronald Reagan

Fortieth president and leader of the conservative revival

The United States in the Twenty-First Century2001–present

Official portrait of President Joe Biden, 2021

born 1942Person

Joe Biden

Forty-sixth president, after thirty-six years in the Senate and eight as vice president

Official White House portrait of President Donald Trump, 2017

born 1946Person

Donald Trump

Forty-fifth and forty-seventh president, the second ever elected to non-consecutive terms

Official portrait of Barack Obama

born 1961Person

Barack Obama

Forty-fourth president and the first African American president