The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
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List of the most influential female people in Education,
#1001
Anna Cox Brinton
1887 - 1969 (82 years)
Anna Shipley Cox Brinton was an American classics scholar, college administrator, writer, and Quaker leader, active with the American Friends Service Committee . She has credited with being one of those who "reinvented Quakerism" for the 20th century.
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Lucy Donnelly
1870 - 1948 (78 years)
Lucy Martin Donnelly was a teacher of English at Bryn Mawr College. She was head of the English department starting in 1914. Sources James, E. T, Wilson James, J. and Boyer, P. S. 1971, Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary , p. 499Russell, B. and Griffin, N. 1992, The selected letters of Bertrand Russell, p. Lucy Donnelly
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Wilhelmina van Ingen Elarth
1905 - 1969 (64 years)
Wilhelmina van Ingen Elarth was an archaeologist and art history and classical studies professor. She studied at Vassar and received her doctorate at Radcliffe. In addition to her research contributions to the classics, she also bridged her interest to contemporary art and architecture. Her grandfather was Henry van Ingen.
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Mildred H. McAfee
1900 - 1994 (94 years)
Mildred Helen McAfee Horton was an American academic, educator, naval officer, and religious leader. She served during World War II as first director of the WAVES in the United States Navy. She was the first woman commissioned in the U.S. Navy Reserve and the first woman to receive the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.
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May Hill Arbuthnot
1884 - 1969 (85 years)
May Hill Arbuthnot was an American educator, editor, writer, and critic who devoted her career to the awareness and importance of children's literature. Her efforts expanded and enriched the selection of books for children, libraries, and children's librarians alike. She was selected for American Libraries article “100 Most Important Leaders we had for the 20th Century”.
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Marta Traba
1930 - 1983 (53 years)
Marta Traba Taín was an art critic and writer known for her contributions to Latin American art and literature. Biography Traba's parents were Catalan immigrants, Francisco Traba and Marta Taín. She studied Letters at the University of Buenos Aires. Upon graduation she worked at the arts review journal Ver y Estimar , under the editorship of the art critic Jorge Romero Brest.
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Susan Tolman Mills
1826 - 1912 (86 years)
Susan Tolman Mills was the co-founder of Mills College . Background Mills was born on November 18, 1826, in Enosburgh, Vermont. She was one of eight children of John Tolman and Elizabeth Tolman. Her family moved to Ware, Massachusetts by 1836, where her father and brothers expanded the family's tannery business. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1845.
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Gisela Richter
1882 - 1972 (90 years)
Gisela Marie Augusta Richter was a British-American classical archaeologist and art historian. She was a prominent figure and an authority in her field. Early life Gisela Richter was born in London, England, the daughter of Jean Paul and Louise Richter. Both of her parents and her sister, Irma, were art historians specialised in Italian Renaissance. Richter was educated at Maida Vale School, one of the finest schools for women at the time. She decided to become a classical archaeologist while attending Emmanuel Loewy's lectures at the University of Rome around 1896. In 1901, she began attending Girton College at the University of Cambridge.
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Irma Salas Silva
1903 - 1987 (84 years)
Irma Salas Silva was a distinguished Chilean educator. She was the first Chilean woman to earn a doctorate in education, obtained at Columbia University in 1930. Biography Irma Salas was born in Santiago on 11 March 1903, the daughter of educator and Luisa Silva Molina. She followed in her father's footsteps, becoming a noted academic administrator. She was also an advocate for women's rights and education.
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Josephine Turpin Washington
1861 - 1949 (88 years)
Josephine Turpin Washington was an African-American writer and teacher. A long-time educator and a frequent contributor, Washington devised articles to magazines and newspapers typically concerning some aspect of racism in America. Washington was a great-granddaughter of Mary Jefferson Turpin, a paternal aunt of Thomas Jefferson.
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Maikki Friberg
1861 - 1927 (66 years)
Maria Elisabeth Friberg was a Finnish educator, journal editor, suffragist and peace activist. She is remembered for her involvement in the Finnish women's movement, especially as chair of the Finnish women's rights organisation Suomen Naisyhdistys and as the founder and editor of the women's journal Naisten Ääni . She travelled widely, promoting understanding of Finland abroad while participating in international conferences and contributing to the foreign press.
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Taki Fujita
1898 - 1993 (95 years)
Taki Fujita was a Japanese educator and activist for women's rights. Fujita was president of Tsuda College from 1962 to 1972. Early life and education Fujita was born in Nagoya, and raised in Okinawa and Osaka, the daughter of a judge, Fujita Kikue, and Fujita Kameki. Her parents were Christian and she was baptized as an infant; as an adult she was drawn to the Quaker tradition. She attended Tsuda College beginning in 1916, and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1925. She returned to the United States in 1935 for further study at Smith College.
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Emma Elizabeth Johnson
1863 - Present (163 years)
Emma Elizabeth Johnson was an American educator who served as president of Johnson Bible College , in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1925 until her death. She was the first American woman to serve as president of a co-educational university.
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Mary Pickford
1892 - 1979 (87 years)
Gladys Marie Smith , known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian actress resident in the U.S., and also producer, screenwriter and film studio founder, who was a pioneer in the US film industry with a Hollywood career that spanned five decades.
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Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
1903 - 1971 (68 years)
Sibyl Moholy-Nagy was an architectural and art historian. Originally a German citizen, she accompanied her second husband, the Hungarian Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy, in his move to the United States. She was the author of a study of his work, Moholy-Nagy: Experiment in Totality, plus several other books on architectural history.
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Michi Matsuda
1868 - Present (158 years)
Michi Matsuda also written as Matsuda MichiDoshisha Joshi Senmon Gakko Early life Michi Matsuda was born in Kyoto. She went to the United States in 1893 to study, beginning with two years of college preparation at Miss Stevens' school in Germantown, Pennsylvania. With a letter of recommendation from Tsuda Umeko, she attended Bryn Mawr College, earning a bachelor's degree in 1899. She was the first student to hold the American Women's Scholarship for Japanese Women, begun by Tsuda.
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Lydia Fowler Wadleigh
1817 - 1888 (71 years)
Lydia Fowler Wadleigh was an American educator, principal of the first high school for girls in New York City, and "lady superintendent" of the precursor to Hunter College. Early life and education Lydia Fowler Wadleigh was born in Sutton, New Hampshire, daughter of Benjamin and Polly Marsden Wadleigh. Her father was a county judge. Her cousin was US Senator Bainbridge Wadleigh. She attended New Hampton Literary and Scientific Institution, graduating in 1841.
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Fatima Massaquoi
1904 - 1978 (74 years)
Fatima Massaquoi-Fahnbulleh was a Liberian writer and academic. After completing her education in the United States, she returned to Liberia in 1946, making significant contributions to the cultural and social life of the country.
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Barbara Foxley
1860 - 1958 (98 years)
Barbara Foxley was a British Professor of Education at University College, Cardiff and a campaigner for women's rights. Life Foxley was born in Market Weighton where her father, Reverend Joseph Foxley, was the vicar. Her mother was Lucy born Allen and Barbara was educated at home before attending schools in London and Manchester. She obtained what would have been a second class degree at Newnham College, but Cambridge University only gave degrees to men until 1949. Her historical tripos and a teaching qualification enabled her to gain a master's degree from Trinity College, Dublin who did not...
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Fannie Smith Washington
1858 - 1884 (26 years)
Fannie Smith Washington was an American educator, and the first wife of Booker T. Washington. Before her premature death in 1884, Fannie Washington aided her husband in the early development of the Tuskegee Institute.
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Carmelita Hinton
1890 - 1983 (93 years)
Carmelita Hinton was an American progressive educator. She is best known as the founder in 1935 of The Putney School, a progressive boarding school in Vermont. Early life Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Hinton was one of four children. Her father, Clement Chase, who owned a newspaper and a bookstore, was a women's rights advocate and encouraged Hinton's energetic nature and belief that she could do what she wished with her life. Her mother, Lula Belle Edwards, disagreed and tried unsuccessfully to mold Hinton into a more traditional woman's role. During her years at the Omaha's Episcopal School for ...
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Amy Barrington
1858 - 1942 (84 years)
Amy Barrington was an Irish teacher and scientist who was closely associated with the practices and beliefs of eugenics. She published several papers on that subject as well as indexing a work on history. She also wrote an account of the family history of the Barringtons. Amy Barrington herself states in 'The Barrington family history' that she occupied herself in learning and travelling for 26 years before deciding to pursue her family's ancestral history. She was the youngest daughter of Edward Barrington of Fassaroe, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland.
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Cynthia S. Burnett
1840 - 1932 (92 years)
Cynthia S. Burnett was an American educator, temperance reformer, and newspaper editor. She passed her early life in Ohio, but her first temperance movement work was done in Illinois, in 1879, later answering calls for help in Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In 1885, she was made state organizer of Ohio, and the first year of this appointment, she lectured 165 times, besides holding meetings in the daytime and organizing over 40 unions. Her voice failing, she accepted a call to Utah as teacher in the Methodist Episcopal College, in Salt Lake City. While living there, she was made ...
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Lilian Wyckoff Johnson
1864 - 1956 (92 years)
Lilian Wyckoff Johnson was an American teacher of history and an advocate for rural reform and civil rights. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee to John Cumming Johnson and Elizabeth Fisher. Both of her parents valued education and were strong proponents of community service. Her mother headed up the Memphis Women's Christian Association and was the first president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. After an early education in private schools, in 1878 Lilian was sent to Dayton, Ohio to take refuge during a yellow fever outbreak; while there, she attended the Cooper Academy. Her parents...
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Harriet Newell Haskell
1835 - 1907 (72 years)
Harriet Newell Haskell was an American educator and school administrator from the U.S. state of Maine. She taught from 1855 to 1860 in Waldoboro, Maine and Boston, Massachusetts. From 1860 to 1868, she was a teacher and principal at Castleton Collegiate Seminary, Vermont. Thereafter, for 39 years, she served as principal at Monticello Seminary of Godfrey, Illinois.
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Elizabeth Bass
1876 - 1956 (80 years)
Mary Elizabeth Bass was an American physician, educator and suffragist. She was the first of two women to become faculty members at the medical school of Tulane University along with Edith Ballard. Bass worked to promote the efforts of women as physicians. She worked at Tulane for thirty years.
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May Gorslin Preston Slosson
1858 - 1943 (85 years)
May Gorslin Preston Slosson was an American educator and suffragist. She was the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree in Philosophy in the United States. Life May Gorslin Preston was the daughter of Reverend Levi Campbell Preston and the former Mary Gorslin. Her family moved to Kansas from New York State. She earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Hillsdale College in Michigan. In 1880 she became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. from Cornell University, and the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree in Philosophy in the United States. Her thesis was entitled Different Theories of Beauty.
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Yoshi Kajiro
1871 - 1959 (88 years)
Yoshi Kajiro was a Japanese educator, the longtime principal of the in Okayama. Early life Yoshi Kajiro was born in Matsuyama, in Ehime Prefecture, the daughter of Kajiro Tomoyoshi , a Christian convert who later established a Japanese church in the Kakaako district of Honolulu. She was educated at Baika Girls' School, which was founded by Japanese Christians.
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Laura Drake Gill
1860 - 1926 (66 years)
Laura Drake Gill was the third dean of Barnard College. She graduated in 1881 from Smith College with a degree in mathematics. She became an educator, in particular the third dean of Barnard College. In 1898, she left for Cuba among the first group of nurses sent by the Red Cross. According to Britannica, she is "remembered particularly for her role in establishing organized placement assistance for educated women".
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Lois Knowles
1903 - 1990 (87 years)
Lois Knowles was the first woman to become a full professor in the College of Education at the University of Missouri. Dr. Knowles advocated for more women in higher education and co-authored an innovative textbook at the time, Seeing Through Arithmetic.
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Ninetta May Runnals
1885 - 1980 (95 years)
Ninetta May "Nettie" Runnals was an American academic and college administrator. She served as Dean of Women at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, her alma mater, for 27 years, advocating for gender equality for women students and faculty members. She also helped raise significant funding for a Women's Union on the Mayflower Hill campus, which was renamed Runnals Union in her honor in 1959. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1992.
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Mary Julia Baldwin
1829 - 1897 (68 years)
Mary Julia Baldwin was an American educator in Staunton, Virginia. For thirty-four years she ran Mary Baldwin College, which was named in her honor in 1895 and later became Mary Baldwin University. Early and family life Born to Margaret Sarah Sowers Baldwin Heiskell and her husband William Daniel Baldwin in Winchester, Virginia at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley on October 4, 1829, Mary Julia Baldwin never knew her father, who died when she was a baby. Raised by her maternal grandparents in Staunton, Virginia after her mother remarried, in 1842 Mary became a member of the first class of sixty girls at the Augusta Female Seminary.
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Helen M. Robinson
1906 - 1988 (82 years)
Helen M. Robinson was an American writer and educator who became the lead writer of the Dick and Jane series of readers after the death of William S. Gray in 1960, a status she retained through the late 1970s. She was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1944 to 1968, and was nationally recognized in the field of reading education. She served as first President of the Reading Hall of Fame.
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Electa Nobles Lincoln Walton
1824 - 1908 (84 years)
Electa Nobles Lincoln Walton was an American educator, lecturer, writer, and suffragist from the U.S. state of New York. Though she was co-author of a series of arithmetic books, the publishers decided that her name should be withheld. She became an advocate for the enfranchisement of women. She was said to be the "first woman to administer a state normal school". She was an officer of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, an active member and director in the New England Women's Educational Club of Boston, and president of the West Newton Woman's Educational Club since its organization in 1880.
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Julia Gulliver
1856 - 1940 (84 years)
Julia Henrietta Gulliver was an American philosopher, educator and college president. She was only the second woman in America to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy and was a tireless advocate for increased female representation in higher education.
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Lucy Rider Meyer
1849 - 1922 (73 years)
Lucy Jane Rider Meyer was an American social worker, educator, physician, and author who cofounded the Chicago Training School for City, Home, and Foreign Missions in Illinois. She is credited with reviving the office of the female deacon in the U.S. Methodist Episcopal Church.
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Millicent Carey McIntosh
1898 - 2001 (103 years)
Millicent Carey McIntosh was an educational administrator and American feminist who led the Brearley School , and most prominently Barnard College . The first married woman to head one of the Seven Sisters, she was "considered a national role model for generations of young women who wanted to combine career and family," advocating for working mothers and for child care as a dignified profession.
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