John Wickham (1763 - 1839)

Attorney. He was a respected Virginia lawyer for many years. Raised in New York City by a British Loyalist family, he studied at the Military Academy in Arras, France, before returning to America. During the American Revolution he was arrested as a British spy on orders from Governor Thomas Jefferson and tried but acquitted. After […]

Giotto (1970 - 1337)

Artist,  Architect.  Acknowledged as the most important painter of the 1300s.  Giotto’s art represented the first stirrings of the Italian Renaissance.  He broke with the flat,  unrealistic Byzantine style of his day and painted from direct observation of nature.  Although he rarely used genuine perspective,  he achieved a sense of depth through skillful use of […]

James Wickersham (1857 - 1939)

Western Political Figure. He was a lawyer in practice at Springfield, Illinois, when he moved Washington Territory in 1883. There he was elected probate judge of Pierce County, serving (1884-88), city attorney of Tacoma, in 1894 and a member of the Washington State House of Representatives in 1898. With the gold discoveries in Alaska, hordes […]

Federico Augustino Giorgi (1878 - 1963)

Artist. Renowned Italian sculptor who designed and sculpted the ornate Valhalla Memorial Rotunda, now known as the Portal of the Folded Wings, a shrine to aviation and a burial place for aviation pioneers. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

Byron Raymond “Whizzer” White (1917 - 2002)

United States Supreme Court Associate Justice, Professional Football Player. Born in in Fort Collins, Colorado, he grew up in tiny Wellington, where his father was a lumber dealer and staunch Republican mayor.  White excelled in both academics and athletics.  He graduated first in his high school, college, and law school classes.  His athletic achievements included […]

Luca Giordano (1634 - 1705)

Painter. Known as Luca Fa-Presto, or Speedy Luca, because of the rapidity with which he could execute a painting, he was born in Naples, and studied there under Ribera. In 1682 and 1683, he worked in Florence, including a huge fresco in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi; then, in 1692, he went to Spain at the invitation […]

Charles Isaac Ginner (1878 - 1952)

English painter. After study in Paris, Ginner settled in London, becoming a founder of the neorealist school. During both world wars he was an official government artist. Among his World War II paintings are several scenes of air raids. (bio by: K)

Alice Stebbins Wells (1873 - 1957)

Social Pioneer. First female police officer in the United States. A Pentecostal minister from the Midwest, Wells’s church work helped her become familiar with dismal treatment that women and children received when they became involved in police cases. She petitioned the mayor, police commissioner and city council to allow her to join the force to […]

Jordi “Gin” Ginés (1930 - 1996)

Cartoonist, Illustrator. He signed his work “Gin”.  Born in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, he began his career in 1954 as assistant of the illustrator Conti. Later he developed his own stories for the magazines “Florita” and “Yumbo,” with his characters “Fausto Durete,” “Mary Paz” and “Miguelín y su Perro Tizón.” In 1957 he began working for […]

Kate Warne (1970 - 1868)

Private Detective. Born in New York City, almost nothing is known of her prior to 1856 when, as a young widow, she answered an employment advertisement placed by Alan Pinkerton. She was one of four new agents the Pinkerton Detective Agency hired that year and proved to be a natural, taking to undercover work easily. […]

André Gill (1840 - 1885)

French painter and caricaturist, born in Paris, the illegitimate son of the Comte de Guines and Sylvie-Adeline Gosset.

Lawrence Edward Walsh (1912 - 2014)

Attorney, Judge, Diplomat and Prosecutor. He graduated from Columbia College in 1932, and from Columbia Law School in 1935. He served a varied career including private practice. New York special assistant attorney general from 1936 to 1938. Deputy assistant district attorney of New York County from 1938 to 1941. U.S. District Court judge from 1954 […]

Walter Gilbert (1871 - 1946)

Sculptor. He was the designer of many war memorials. He studied at the Birmingham Municipal Art School and the Royal College of Art before completing his training in Europe. He spent the early years of his career teaching art at Rugby School and at Harrow. In 1898 he founded the Bromsgrove Guild, a highly regarded […]

Lurleen Brigham Burns Wallace (1926 - 1968)

Alabama Governor, wife of George C. Wallace. Because of an Alabama law prohibiting governors from serving consecutive terms, Governor George Wallace had his wife campaign for governor. She won the election, and was inaugurated in January, 1967, as the first (and so far only) female governor of Alabama. She acted as a figurehead, with her […]

Cass Gilbert (1859 - 1934)

Noted American architect and “Skyscraper Pioneer.” He was the son of Samuel Augustus Gilbert and Elizabeth Fulton (Wheeler) Gilbert. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 1878-1879. Gilbert exercised enormous influence on the development of architecture in the United States. He is perhaps best known for his gothic skyscraper, the Woolworth Building, which was […]

Henry Menasco Wade (1914 - 2001)

Kennedy Assassination Figure. The long time Dallas County District attorney, he was the chief prosecutor in the trial of Jack Ruby, killer of President John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. While a student at the University of Texas, he campaigned for Lyndon Baines Johnson in his 1937 bid for the United States House of […]

Marga Gil Röesset (1908 - 1932)

Artist. At the age of twelve, she illustrated a book of her sister, entitled “El Niño de Oro.” In 1930, she triumphed with her sculpture “Adán y Eva.” Then began a prolific work, that was tragically ended by her suicide at the age of 24, due to her unhappy love for the poet Juan Ramón […]

H. R. Giger (1940 - 2014)

Artist, Film Director.  A surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer, he is probably best remembered for his contributions to the special effects team that won a 1980 Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for their design work on the 1979 science-fiction horror film “Alien,” for which he is credited with the design of […]

John Donaldson Voelker (1903 - 1991)

John Voelker was born in Ishpeming, Michigan on June 29, 1903, to George and Anne Voelker. He attended Northern Michigan Coilege (now University) from 1924 to 1925 before transferring to the University of Michigan Law School, graduating in 1928. While at the University of Michigan, he met and married Grace Taylor. They married on August […]

John Gibson (1817 - 1892)

Architect. Born in Warwickshire. John was an assistant to Sir Charles Barry and assisted him in the drawings of the Houses of Parliament. John was a prominent bank architect at a time when joint-stock banking was an innovation. His 1849 National Bank of Scotland branch in Glasgow led to perhaps his best-known work, the former […]

John Curtis Underwood (1809 - 1873)

US Jurist. Judge of the United States District Court. In 1856 campaigned for the Republican ticket and was so outspoken against slavery he had to leave the state. Campaigned for Abraham Lincoln, in the 1860 campaign, and was rewarded with an appointment as fifth auditor of the treasury in 1861. In 1864, Underwood was appointed […]

Charles Dana Gibson (1867 - 1944)

Artist. Born the son of an amateur artist in Roxbury, Massachusetts, he learned silhouette cutting from his father at an early age. He attended the Art Students League School in Manhattan for two years before he started plying his trade as a freelance artist, selling sketches to Life Magazine. Harper’s Weekly, Scribners and Colliers Magazine. […]

Charles Tucker (1970 - 1910)

Murder Victim. London city policeman who, with his colleague Robert Bentley, was ‘killed in the execution of their duty while endeavouring to apprehend a number of armed burglars in Exchange Buildings, Cutler St.’ The burglars were actually Russian anarchists who later held a shoot-out at the ‘Siege of Sidney Street’ in 1911. (bio by: David […]

James Gibbs (1682 - 1754)

Architect. Born in Scotland, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. His most important works are St Martin-in-the-Fields, in London, and the cylindrical, domed Radcliffe Camera at Oxford University. Through the influence of Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, James was made one of the surveyors to the commissioners for building […]

François Denis Tronchet (1726 - 1806)

Lawyer, defended Louis XVI. Hid during the Terror. NapoleonÕs placeman in the 1800 commission to devise a new Civil Code. Entered Pantheon 1806. (bio by: David Conway)

Grinling Gibbons (1648 - 1721)

Sculptor and Wood Carver. Very little is known about his early life. He was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He moved to Deptford, England around 1667, and by 1693 had accepted commissions from the royal family and had been appointed as a master carver. By 1680 he was already known as the “King’s Carver”, and carried […]

Thomas Whitaker Trenchard (1863 - 1942)

Jurist. He gained everlasting notority as the trial judge in the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping case.

Giovanni Giacometti (1868 - 1933)

Artist.  He helped introduce modernism to Swiss painting in the early 20th Century. Giacometti was born in Stampa,  Switzerland,  into a family of Italian descent.  He studied painting in Munich and Paris (1886 to 1891),  and lived in Italy before settling in his hometown.  On a visit to Munich in 1901 he discovered the work […]

Jean-Baptiste Treilhard (1742 - 1810)

Lawyer who played a leading part in devising the Napoleonic civil and criminal codes. Entered Pantheon 1810. (bio by: David Conway)

Alberto Giacometti (1901 - 1966)

Sculptor.  His signature works are elongated human figures that convey a sense of isolation and anguish.  Their rough,  charred-looking surfaces capture light and shadow in compelling ways.  Giacometti arrived at this style after World War II and many see it as existential commentary on the postwar human condition,  though the artist himself claimed he was […]