A.Y. Jackson (1882 - 1974)

Artist. He was one of the original members of the Group of Seven, a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933 that also included Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley. He was born Alexander Young Jackson in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on October 3, 1882. […]

Isabella MacDonald Alden (1841 - 1930)

Author. She was a popular writer of books for children in the Nineteenth century, using the pseudonym of “Pansy”.  Family links:  Parents:  Isaac MacDonald (1800 – 1870)  Myra Spafford MacDonald (1803 – 1885)  Sibling:  Marcia B. MacDonald Livingston (1832 – 1924)*  Isabella MacDonald Alden (1841 – 1930) *Calculated relationship

George Jack (1855 - 1931)

Artits. Famed designer and part of the legendary Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. George Jack was a leading craftsman with William Morris and Company, and is most associated with spikily-leaved inlays or decoration on furniture, such as tables and the like. He also lectured at William Lethaby’s Central […]

Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888)

Author. She is best known as the author of the novel “Little Women”, which was published in 1869. Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, she grew up in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts, where her father, A. Bronson Alcott, was a noted educator and leader of a philosophical movement called transcendentalism. Her family friends and neighbors included the […]

Miklós Izsó (1831 - 1875)

Sculptor. His most known sculpture is the “Búsuló juhász” (1862). Cause of death: tuberculosis

Celia Alcántara (1920 - 2005)

Television Screenwriter. She wrote the scripts for over 100 Argentine soap operas for radio and television, among them the series “Rosa de Lejos,” “Simplemente María,” “Muchacha Italiana viene a Casarse,” and “Rafael Heredia, Gitano.”

Ub Iwerks (1901 - 1971)

Ub Iwerks Ub Iwerks was a man of many talents. He was a prolific animator and a brilliant technical mind. He was Walt’s Swiss Army knife, a man who was to Walt whatever he needed him to be. He was as necessary to the beginning of Walt’s career as he was to the end. He […]

Rafael Alberti (1902 - 1999)

Poet. Born in Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain, hw founded the revolutionary magazine “Octubre” and fought against the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. He is best remembered for his books “Marinero en tierra” (1924), “Sobre los ángeles” (1928), and “Entre el clavel y la espada” (1939). He was cremated and his ashes scattered in […]

James Merritt Ives (1824 - 1895)

Lithographer. He partnered with Nathaniel Currier to found the “Currier and Ives” printmaking firm, which from 1835 to 1907 produced over a million lithographs, which were extremely popular in 19th century American life.  Family links:  Parents:  Chauncey Ives (1795 – 1879)  Hannah Augusta Storer Ives (1797 – 1868)  Spouse:  Caroline Clark Ives (1825 – 1898) […]

Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810 - 1884)

Author.

Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767 - 1855)

Painter.

Leopoldo “Clarín” Alas (1852 - 1901)

Author. He is best remembered for his book “La Regenta”, and the works “Adiós, Cordera” and “Cuentos Morales”.

Irene (1901 - 1962)

Costume Designer. Born Irene Lentz in Baker, Montana, she traveled to California while still a teen, and appeared in a number of small roles in the infancy of silent film, appearing in support roles in Mack Sennett productions as early as 1921. She eventually married her director F. Richard Jones, becoming his third wife. Less […]

William Addison “Billy” Ireland (1880 - 1935)

Beloved cartoonist for Columbus, Ohio Dispatch for 37 years with humorous “Passing Show”. An accomplished political cartoonist.  Family links:  Spouse:  Florence Sayre Ireland (1881 – 1962)* *Calculated relationship

Jean Robert Ipousteguy (1920 - 2006)

Sculptor, Painter. He was born in Dun-sur-Meuse, France. After an abstract phase, he concentrated primarily on the human figure and was inspired by surrealism, social themes as well as erotic motifs and the theme of death. In 1977, he was awarded the Grand National Prize for art and made a chevalier de la Légion d’honneur […]

George Inness, Jr (1854 - 1926)

Artist. The son of George Inness, an important American landscape painter and Elizabeth Hart. Although George Jr. studied with Leon Bonnat in Paris, his foremost teacher and mentor was his father, with whom he studied in Rome and in Montclair, New Jersey. Like many sons of famous fathers, George Inness Jr.’s artist life was both […]

George Inness (1825 - 1894)

Artist. Born near Newburgh, New York, was the fifth of thirteen children, his father, a prosperous grocer, tried to make a grocer out of him, but the youth decided instead to become an artist. Around 1841, he received a month’s instruction from John Jesse Barker, a painter living in Newark, New Jersey, where the Inness […]

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780 - 1867)

Major French Neoclassicist painter of the 19th century. He was a hero of Degas’. He was a consummate draughtsman who worked most of his career in Rome. He was a master of the female nude and portraiture.

Jheryl Busby (1949 - 2008)

Record Executive. He began his career in music as a promotion agent at Stax Records Memphis, Tennessee and in 1984, become the president of the black music division of MCA Records. In 1988, he was named the president and chief executive officer of Motown Records, Los Angeles, serving until 1995. As Motown’s CEO, he helped […]

Pomeroy Burton (1970 - 1970)

Sir Pomeroy Burton was one of Britains leading newspaper magnates. He was General Manager of Associated Newspapers. He was one of the leaders who took over the famous “The Times” newspaper in 1908. (bio by: Kieran Smith)

Erik Höglund (1932 - 1998)

Acclaimed Glass Artist, Painter, Sculptor. For many years cooperating with famous glassworks Boda of Sweden, where he made many of his appreciated works, as well as famous designs. His glass works made international recognition and besides his pieces of art, he also made some 150 public adornments, in Sweden and abroad. His works are concidered […]

Washington Atlee Burpee (1858 - 1915)

Businessman. In 1876, the US was still recovering from the upheaval of the Civil War and a severe economic depression. Burpee’s boyhood hobby was poultry breeding and the science of genetics fascinated him. In 1888, he bought a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania, called it Fordhook and began transforming it into what would soon become a […]

Franz Anton Högl (1769 - 1859)

Sculptor.

Daniel Huntington (1816 - 1906)

Artist.  As a descendant of two Mayflower passengers, William Brewster and John Alden, and the grandson of two famous Huntingtons, paternal-grandson of Benjamin Huntington, Senior who had been a Connecticut delegate to the Continental Congress, and also as a maternal-grandson of Revolutionary War Brigadier-General Jedediah Huntington, he was born into a privileged and highly respected […]

Leo Burnett (1891 - 1971)

Advertising Executive. He founded the highly successful Leo Burnett Advertising Company, which over time served giant corporate clients such as Proctor and Gamble, Philip Morris Company, Pillsbury, United Airlines, and General Motors, and created iconic advertising characters such as the “Marlboro Man”, and “Tony the Tiger”.  Family links:  Parents:  Noble I Burnett (1864 – 1928) […]

Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (1876 - 1973)

Artist.  Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father, Alpheus Hyatt, was a professor of paleontology and zoology at Harvard University and MIT, and served as a contributing factor to her early interest in animals and animal anatomy. She studied with sculptors Henry Hudson Kittleson in Boston and Hermon Atkins MacNeil at the Art Students League. She […]

David Burbank (1821 - 1895)

Businessman. A dentist originally from New Hampshire, in 1867 he bought 4,600 acres of the Rancho La Providencia, and more than 4,000 acres of the Rancho San Rafael. These he combined to form a large and extremely successful sheep ranch. In 1886, he sold his holdings to the Providencia Land, Water, and Development Company for […]

Clementine Hunter (1970 - 1988)

African-American folk artist whose works depicted scenes of daily life on Melrose Plantation, where she lived for approximately 85 years.  Although there is some doubt about her actual date of birth, it is generally believed that she was at least 100 years old when she died in 1988.  She is buried next to her close […]

Arde Bulova (1889 - 1958)

Businessman, Manufacturer. The son of Joseph Bulova, the Czech immigrant who founded the J. Bulova luxury watch making company, he took over the business from his father, and grew it into one of the market leaders among United States watchmakers. By the mid-1950s, under his direction, the company’s annual sales had reached $80 million.  Family […]

William Morris Hunt (1824 - 1879)

Artist. William was the son of a Vermont congressman. He learned to draw at an early age, his first teacher being an Italian artist named Gambadella. After leaving Harvard College in his third year. Following the untimely death of his father from cholera, William was taken in 1844 by his widowed mother Jane Leavitt Hunt […]