Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries
Filterable archive covering centuries of intellectual, artistic, and moral contributions to the human story.
Elsa Brandstrom
(Elsa Brandstrom)
Swedish nurse and humanitarian celebrated across Europe as the 'Angel of Siberia' for single-handedly organizing medical relief, food, and salvation for hundreds of thousands of German and Austrian prisoners of war in Siberian camps during World War I.
Nicholas Murray Butler
(Nicholas Murray Butler)
Nicholas Murray Butler was an American philosopher, educator, and political advisor who served as President of Columbia University for forty-three years (1902–1945). As the trusted confidant of Andrew Carnegie, he was the founding trustee and longtime President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sharing the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize with Jane Addams.
Mabel Thorp Boardman
(Mabel Thorp Boardman)
Mabel Thorp Boardman was an American philanthropist and civic organizer who led the total administrative reorganization of the American Red Cross under a federal congressional charter in 1905. Serving as the organization's de facto executive leader for over four decades, she transformed the Red Cross from a small volunteer group into a massive, professionally funded national disaster relief agency.
John Langalibalele Dube
(John Langalibalele Dube)
Educator, editor, and the founding first president of the South African Native National Congress (later the ANC) in 1912.
Harry Lloyd Hopkins
(Harry Hopkins)
Travailleur social américain devenu le bras droit de Franklin D. Roosevelt, directeur de la WPA procurant un emploi et la dignité à plus de 8 millions de chômeurs démunis.
Bienheureux Marcel Callo
(Marcel Callo)
Typographe et militant jociste breton, déporté au STO puis au camp de Mauthausen pour avoir soutenu spirituellement et soigné ses camarades ouvriers déportés.
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi
(牧口 常三郎)
Pédagogue et philosophe humaniste japonais, fondateur de la Soka Kyoiku Gakkai, mort martyr en prison pour son refus du militarisme shinto d'État.
Henri Marie La Fontaine
(Henri Marie La Fontaine)
Henri La Fontaine was an eminent Belgian international jurist, senator, and bibliographer who served as President of the International Peace Bureau from 1907 to 1943. Co-founder of the International Institute of Bibliography and creator of the Mundaneum with Paul Otlet, he was awarded the 1913 Nobel Peace Prize for his organizational leadership of the global peace movement.
Alexandre Émile Jean Yersin
(Alexandre Yersin)
Médecin et bactériologiste franco-suisse, découvreur du bacille de la peste (Yersinia pestis) et bienfaiteur vénéré de la population de Nha Trang au Vietnam.
Janusz Korczak
(Henryk Goldszmit)
Janusz Korczak (pen name of Henryk Goldszmit) was a Polish-Jewish pediatrician, pioneering educator, and beloved children's author who established an egalitarian democratic children's republic at Dom Sierot orphanage in Warsaw. When the Nazis liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto in August 1942, Korczak steadfastly refused multiple offers of personal escape, choosing instead to march hand-in-hand with his 192 orphans into the gas chambers of Treblinka.
Saint Maximilien-Marie Kolbe
(Rajmund Kolbe)
Prêtre franciscain polonais, qui abrita 2 000 Juifs dans son monastère avant d'offrir volontairement sa vie pour sauver celle d'un père de famille condamné au bunker de la faim à Auschwitz.
Ludwig Quidde
(Ludwig Quidde)
Ludwig Quidde was a prominent German historian, pacifist, and politician who served as President of the German Peace Society (DFG) for fifteen years (1914–1929). Famed for his daring 1894 satirical essay 'Caligula' attacking Kaiser Wilhelm II's militaristic megalomania, Quidde opposed German expansionism throughout WWI and shared the 1927 Nobel Peace Prize with Ferdinand Buisson before fleeing Nazi terror.
Ballington Booth
(Ballington Booth)
Fils de William Booth et cofondateur des Volunteers of America (1896), dévoué à la réhabilitation des détenus et à l'hébergement des familles déshéritées.
Lillian D. Wald
(Lillian Wald)
Infirmière et réformatrice sociale américaine, fondatrice du Henry Street Settlement et pionnière mondiale des soins infirmiers de santé publique.
Charles Freer Andrews
(C. F. Andrews)
Prêtre anglican et réformateur britannique surnommé Deenabandhu (« l'Ami des pauvres »), compagnon intime de Gandhi et de Rabindranath Tagore.
Edward Stephen Harkness
(Edward Harkness)
Philanthrope américain d'une discrétion légendaire, donateur de plus de 130 millions de dollars, fondateur du Commonwealth Fund et du Pilgrim Trust.
Henry Norman Bethune
(Norman Bethune (白求恩))
Chirurgien thoracique canadien visionnaire, créateur de la première unité mobile de transfusion sanguine en Espagne et héros médical en Chine.
Grace Abbott
(Grace Abbott)
Champion of immigrants' rights and child welfare who directed the Immigrants' Protective League, led the federal enforcement of the first federal child labor laws, and helped draft the historic Social Security Act of 1935.