Joseph Albert Albertson (1906 - 1993)

Businessman.  Born in Yukon, Oklahoma Territory. He was one of four sons born to Rhoda and Earl Albertson. Before he was three, the family moved to Caldwell, Idaho, in 1909, where Joe grew up. After graduating from Caldwell High School in 1925, Albertson studied business for two years at the College of Idaho in Caldwell. […]

Charley Harper (1922 - 2007)

Artist. For over fifty years, he was known as one of the best wildlife artists in America. His works have been shown in galleries, traveling exhibitions, nature magazines and as posters for conservation organizations. His collections are in the National Park Service Center, Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Nature Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, Hamilton County Park Center […]

William Michael Harnett (1848 - 1892)

Artist. Born in Ireland, he immigrated to the United States with his parents shortly after his birth. Becoming a citizen in 1868, he took night classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later studied at Cooper Union in New York City. He practiced a trompe l’oeil style of realistic painting. His still […]

Persus Foster Eames Albee (1836 - 1914)

Businesswoman. She was known as the “First Avon Lady”. In 1886 became the first saleswoman for the California Perfume Company, a business that eventually became the multi-billion dollar Avon Products, Incorporated. She started selling the company’s products in 1886 door-to-door, and rose to become the chief of sales for the business. It was her idea […]

Hugh Harman (1903 - 1982)

Cartoon Animator. A pioneer in animation, he helped to create ‘Daffy Duck’ and ‘Bugs Bunny’ among other Looney Tune characters. He began his career in 1922 when he got a job working for the Walt Disney, working on the Laugh-o-Gram toons. After Disney went bankrupt he and his partner, Rudolf Ising tried to start a […]

Yoshio Akao (1970 - 1970)

Publisher, Broadcaster. He was the founder of Oubunsha, a cultural enterprise that served as a publisher for high school students. Before World War II, he wrote and published a famous English glossary for preparatory school students called “Akao No Mametan.” He and his family became very wealthy from this endeavor and then began publishing various […]

Fred Harman (1902 - 1982)

Cartoonist, Artist. He is one of the best known American western artists, famous for his comic series ‘Red Ryder and Little Beaver’ as well as his many paintings of the Wild West. He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri and raised on a ranch in Pagosa Springs in Colorado, near the border of New Mexico. […]

Per-Olof Ahl (1919 - 1996)

Businessman, Author. He was the founder of “KappAhl”, one of the leading clothing companies in Scandinavia. he started his successful business in 1953, locating his new firm in a basement in Gothenburg, Sweden, and toured Sweden, selling coats from a bus. His early efforts proved successful, and his business soon grew to one of the […]

Keith Allen Haring (1958 - 1990)

Keith Allen Haring Artist. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania to Allen and Joan Haring. As a child Keith was fascinated by the cartoon art of Walt Disney and Charles Schultz and the illustrations of Dr. Seuss. He spent many hours drawing. After graduating from high school in 1976, Keith briefly attended the Ivy School of Professional […]

Umberto Agnelli (1934 - 2004)

Industrialist. He was the Chairman of Italy’s largest industrial group, Fiat, and one of Italy’s richest men, who lived for years in the shadow of his flamboyant brother, Giovanni (Gianni) Agnelli. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, he endured a series of tragedies that began with the loss of his father when he was an infant, his […]

Thomas Hardwick, Jr (1970 - 1970)

Noted architect. He was an eminent architect, renowed principally as a church designer and with his son Philip Hardwick (1792-1870), also a noted architect, held the post of surveyor to St Batholomew’s Hospital, London. His father was a master mason turned architect, Thomas Hardwick senior (1725-1798) with whom he worked at Syon House, Middlesex for […]

Giovanni Agnelli (1866 - 1945)

Industrialist. He was the founder of the Fiat automobile company. Born in Villar Perosa, a small town near Pinerolo, Italy, his father, the mayor of Villar Perosa, died at age 40, when Giovanni was just five. He studied at the Collegio San Giuseppe in Turin; then embarked on a military career until 1893 when he […]

Philip Hardwick (1792 - 1870)

Noted Master Architect. He was a well-known architect who specialized in the design of railway stations in London. He was born in London and studied under the tutorship of his father, Thomas junior, master-mason to Robert Adam at Syon House, Middlesex. His grandfather, Thomas senior, was also a successful architect. In 1808 he entered the […]

Lorenz Adlon (1849 - 1921)

Businessman. He built the famous Hotel Adlon in Berlin, Germany in 1907. At one time it was the unofficial residence of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who preferred its comforts to the drafty halls of the Imperial Palace, and over the years it hosted celebrities ranging from Albert Einstein to Louise Brooks. It was an inspiration for […]

Theophilos Hansen (1813 - 1891)

Danish Architect. Many characteristic buildings on Vienna Ring Street were built by him, including the Austrian Parliament, the Vienna Stock Exchange House, Musikverein (music society house).  Inscription:This memorial erected for the atchitect Theophilus Hansen from his sister, his friends, his students and admirers.

Gary Abrahams (1944 - 1992)

Motion Pictures Figure. Along with partner Gary Essert, in 1971 he co-founded “FILMEX,” the Los Angeles Film International Festival. Later, the two created the American Cinematheque in 1981. Both men passed away in 1992 due to the complication of AIDS. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Luke Hansard (1752 - 1828)

Artist. Born in Norwich, he went to London after the expiration of his apprentiship to Stephen White, a Norwich printer. He joined the firm of John Hughs, printer to the House of Commons, who in 1774 made him a partner. In 1800 the buisness came entirely into Hansard’s hands and was renamed later as Luke […]

William Hanna (1910 - 2001)

Animation mogul. Born to William John and Avice Joyce (Denby) Hanna in Melrose, New Mexico.  He was the third of seven children and the only boy.  In 1922, while living in Watts, he joined Scouting. He attended Compton High School from 1925 through 1928, where he played the saxophone in a dance band. His passion […]

Cornelius Haley Hankins (1863 - 1946)

American Artist. Hankins was home tutored due to a case of smallpox which left him deaf till the age of eight. He studied art in Nashville under Edwin M. Gardner, in St. Louis with Robert Henri a leader of the Ashcan School and later with William Merritt Chase in New York. Hankins spent time in […]

Frederick Hammersley (1919 - 2009)

Artist. For five decades, he was a critically acclaimed painter known for his hard-edge abstraction art. He devised his work into three categories, “Hunch” are unplanned paintings that begin with a shape and continue with intuitive additions, “Geometrics” rhythmic orchestrations of geometric shapes and “Organics” are composed of curving forms. He gained national attention in […]

Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864 - 1916)

Painter. Considered one of the most distinctive painters of his era. His work is noted for its simple,  quiet subjects and subdued tones. During the late 20th century he was re-discovered internationally, and his paintings have obtained huge prices at auction houses in London and New York. In 2005 the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) made […]

Theora Alton Hamblett (1895 - 1977)

Painter.  Hamblett grew up on a farm in Lafayette County, Mississippi. She walked the mile to and from a small school in Paris in all weather. This became a big influence on her in later years, as she loved the beauty of nature. After graduating from school she became a teacher and taught in rural […]

Frans Hals (1970 - 1666)

Artist. Considered the most important Dutch portraitist of the seventeenth-century, his work influenced Edouard Manet and Vincent van Gogh. His surviving body of work includes about 300 paintings, mostly portraits and group portraits. (bio by: MC)

George Henry Hall (1825 - 1913)

Artist.  A noted painter of orientalist subjects, figure painting and still lifes. From 1849 to 1852 he studied art in Dusseldorf,  Paris, and Rome, where he opened a studio.  Upon his return to to the US he settled in New York City,  though he would later devote another 20 years to traveling.  This provided the […]

Alfred Warner Hair, Sr. (1918 - 1970)

Artist and Entrepreneur. He helped start a folk art movement known as the Highwaymen. In the segregated mid-1950s, this loosely affiliated group of black painters traveled across the state selling their Florida landscape paintings, often door-to-door. Hair and 25 members of the Highwaymen were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in Tallahassee. Alfred […]

Zaha Hadid (1950 - 2016)

Zaha Hadid began her studies at the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, receiving a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. In 1972 she traveled to London to study at the Architectural Association, a major centre of progressive architectural thought during the 1970s. There she met the architects Elia Zenghelis and Rem Koolhaas, with whom she would collaborate […]

George Hadfield (1763 - 1826)

Noted architect. Trained at the Royal Academy in London, he was invited by President George Washington to take charge of building the United States Capitol according to William Thornton’s design. Surviving commissions of his include the Marine Commandant’s House (1801-1803), Washington City Hall (1820), and the John Peter Van Ness Mausoleum (Oak Hill Cemetery, 1826), […]

Francis Guy (1970 - 1970)

Artist. Guy was one of America’s first landscape painters. His most famous work is the Brooklyn Snow Scene, 1820, completed shortly before his death. In it, all of Guy’s neighbors (the founding fathers of Brooklyn) are featured, giving Brooklyn a uniquely accurate historical record.

Renato Guttuso (1912 - 1987)

Artist. Sicilian born, he was an important figure on the Italian scene in mid-20th century. Among his most relevant masterpieces are included, ‘Flight from Etna’ (1938) and ‘Crucifixion’ (1940). (bio by: MC)

José Gutiérrez Solana (1886 - 1945)

Painter, Writer. He was born in Madrid, Spain. His paintings were included in Expresionism movement. He is best remembered for his work “La Tertulia del Café Pombo.” Other of his paintings “Las Vitrinas,” “El Bibliófilo,” “Mujeres de la Vida,” “El Carro de Carne,” “El Cristo de la Sangre, “Garrote Vil,” “Las Coristas,” “Mis Amigos,” “Las […]