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.
We also provide custom rankings of people by discipline as well as interviews with influential academics who are currently active.
To use this tool, select the discipline (and optional subdiscipline) relevant to your research, and specify influential academics by history, world, or US. Even results that are counterintuitive are often enlightening (our algorithm always picks up a signal).
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List of the most influential people in Education,
#2751
Olive Cowell
1887 - 1984 (97 years)
Olive Thompson Cowell was a patron of the arts and music, and a professor of International Relations. Career Cowell graduated from Barnard College in 1910. She taught in high schools for several years before becoming professor at San Francisco State University. She went on to found the International Relations department as part of the Government program at San Francisco State University in 1927, the first International Relations department in the USA. She taught at the university until 1956.
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Rose Zeller
1891 - 1975 (84 years)
Rose Margaret Zeller was a New Zealand artist. Biography Zeller was born at the family home at 325 Cashel Street, Christchurch, New Zealand, where she lived until her death. Her parents were Hubert Andrew Zeller and Sarah Ann Zeller, who had arrived in New Zealand from London in 1890.
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James Mason Hoppin
1820 - 1906 (86 years)
James Mason Hoppin was an American educator and writer. Biography James Mason Hoppin was born at Providence, Rhode Island on January 17, 1820. He graduated from Yale College in 1840 from Harvard Law School in 1842, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1845. He studied for some time abroad; and was pastor of a Congregational church at Salem, Massachusetts from 1850 to 1859. From 1861 to 1879 he was professor of homiletics at Yale, where he was also professor of art history from 1879 to 1899, when he became professor emeritus. He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science...
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George William Cook
1855 - 1931 (76 years)
George William Cook was an American educator who served as instructor, dean, alumni secretary and manager at Howard University. Born a slave in Winchester, Virginia, he was one of 8 children of Eliza and Peyton Cook. He graduated from the university, as a student of both the liberal arts college, and the law school. His career spanned fifty-eight of the first sixty-six of Howard University's history.
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Antoine Risso
1777 - 1845 (68 years)
Giuseppe Antonio Risso , called Antoine Risso, was a Niçard and naturalist. Risso was born in the city of Nice in the Duchy of Savoy, and studied under Giovanni Battista Balbis. He published , and . Risso's dolphin was named after him. He is denoted by the author abbreviation Risso when citing a botanical name; the same abbreviation is used for zoological names.
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Cady Staley
1840 - 1928 (88 years)
Cady Staley was the first president of Case School of Applied Science, now Case Western Reserve University. Biography Staley was born in Florida, Montgomery County, New York on December 12, 1840. He earned three degrees from Union College of Schenectady, New York, to include his B.A. , C.E. , and Ph.D. . He worked at Union College as an instructor in Civil Engineering from 1867-1868, a professor of that subject from 1868-1876, and the Dean of the Faculty from 1876-1886.
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Bhaskar Vishwananth Ghokale
1903 - 1962 (59 years)
Bhaskar Vishwanath Gokhale , also known as Vaidya Bhaskar Vishwanath Gokhale, and popularly called Mama Gokhaleji, was an Indian Ayurveda practitioner, Ayurvedic teacher, freedom fighter, and philosopher.
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Edward Bradby
1827 - 1893 (66 years)
Rev. Edward Henry Bradby was a classicist. Academic timeline Educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford Canon of St. AlbansPrincipal at Hatfield College, Durham University House Master at Harrow Headmaster of Haileybury College Bradby retired somewhat early from Haileybury to do mission work in the east end of London, where he remained until his death.
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Miriam E. Carey
1858 - 1937 (79 years)
Miriam Eliza Carey was an American librarian who helped establish the first libraries in prisons and hospitals in Iowa and Minnesota. Education and career Carey studied at Rockford Seminary , Oberlin College, Ohio and the library school of the University of Illinois, .
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Hermann Goetz
1898 - 1976 (78 years)
Hermann Goetz was a German art historian and museum director, known for his scholarly contributions in the field of Indian art history. He was the Director of the Baroda Museum & Picture Gallery, and the Director of history of art at the Heidelberg University's Südasien-Institut .
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Eduard Friedrich Poeppig
1798 - 1868 (70 years)
Eduard Friedrich Poeppig was a German botanist, zoologist and explorer. Biography Poeppig was born in Plauen, Saxony. He studied medicine and natural history at the University of Leipzig, graduating with a medical degree. On graduation, the rector of the university gave him a botanical mission to North and South America. He was helped out financially by a small group of friends and scientists in Leipzig, that included botanist Christian Friedrich Schwägrichen, who in exchange, received sets of specimens. He subsequently worked as a naturalist in Cuba and Pennsylvania . In 1826 he departed fo...
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David Scott
1806 - 1849 (43 years)
David Scott was a Scottish historical painter. Life Scott was the brother of William Bell Scott. He was born at Parliament Steps, off Parliament Square in Edinburgh, where he attended the Royal High School, and studied art under his father, Robert Scott, the engraver.
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Michael Apostolius
1420 - 1478 (58 years)
Michael Apostolius or Apostolius Paroemiographus, i.e. Apostolius the proverb-writer, was a Greek teacher, writer and copyist who lived in the fifteenth century. Life Apostolius, a student of John Argyropoulos, taught for a short time at the Monastery of St. John of Petra in Constantinople. Taken prisoner by the Turks during the fall of Constantinople in 1453, he was later released and fled to Crete, then a Venetian colony. There he earned a scanty living by teaching and by copying manuscripts for Italian humanists, including his patron, Cardinal Bessarion. He often complained about his pover...
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Shalva Amiranashvili
1899 - 1975 (76 years)
Shalva Amiranashvili was a Georgian art historian, one of the first to have engaged in systematic scholarly treatment of the art of Georgia. His name was posthumously given, in 1991, to the Art Museum of Georgia, which he had directed for 36 years, from 1939 to 1975.
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Jeff Chandler
1918 - 1961 (43 years)
Jeff Chandler was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Cochise in Broken Arrow , for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was one of Universal Pictures' more popular male stars of the 1950s. His other credits include Sword in the Desert , Deported , Female on the Beach , and Away All Boats . In addition to his acting in film, he was known for his role in the radio program Our Miss Brooks, as Phillip Boynton, her fellow teacher and clueless object of affection, and for his musical recordings.
Go to Profile#2766
Antal Both
1875 - 1963 (88 years)
Antal Both was a Hungarian teacher, pedagogue and Roman Catholic theologian. Life Antal Both was a descendant of the Botfalvi Both family of noble origins, having its ancestral residence in Ung County. He was born on September 2, 1875, in Nagyberezna , as the son of the Roman Catholic Ferdinand Both. At that time, the settlement had mixed national and religious population, with a majority of Rusine and German inhabitants. Ferdinand, the father of Antal Both, set up a pharmacy in this town. In 1885, when Antal was 10 years old, his parents enrolled him in the Piarist grammar school in Nagykároly .
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Charles Pomeroy Otis
1840 - 1888 (48 years)
Charles Pomeroy Otis was an American educator and author. Otis, son of the Rev. Israel T. Otis and Olive M. Otis, was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, where his father was then pastor, on April 8, 1840. In 1844 his father removed to Rye, N. H., from which place he entered Yale College. After graduation in 1861 he was for nearly a year principal of an academy in Fairfield, Connecticut, and then became a teacher in General Russell's school in New Haven, where he remained until he entered on a tutorship in the college, in January, 1865. July, 1869, he resigned this office, and he spent the next three years in Europe, chiefly in study in Paris and Berlin.
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Ora Brown Stokes Perry
1882 - 1957 (75 years)
Ora Brown Stokes Perry was an American educator, probation officer, temperance worker, suffragist, and clubwoman based in Richmond, Virginia. Early life Ora E. Brown was born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, the daughter of Rev. James E. Brown and Olivia Knight Quarles Brown. She trained as a teacher at Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, graduating in 1900. She also studied at Hartshorn Memorial College and the University of Chicago. In 1917, she was refused admission to the newly organized Richmond School of Social Economy because of her race.
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Francis Wharton
1820 - 1889 (69 years)
Francis Wharton was an American legal writer and educationalist. Life Wharton graduated from Yale in 1839, was admitted to the bar in 1843, became prominent in Pennsylvania politics as a Democrat, and served as assistant attorney-general in 1845. In Philadelphia, he edited the North American and United States Gazette. He was professor of English, History, and Literature at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, from 1856 to 1863.
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Myra Carroll Winkler
1880 - 1963 (83 years)
Myra Carroll Winkler was an American educator and was the first woman to hold elected office in El Paso County. Biography Winkler was born in Corsicana, Texas and her father, Clinton M. Winkler, was one of the first judges on the Texas State Court of Appeals. Winkler's mother, A.V. Winkler, was active in collecting Confederate artifacts. Winkler attended and graduated from the Sam Houston Teacher's College, and moved to El Paso, Texas in 1902. In El Paso, Winkler taught at several El Paso public schools, including El Paso High School.
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Clemens V. Rault
1896 - 1989 (93 years)
Clemens Vincent Rault was a rear admiral in the United States Navy and dean of the Georgetown University School of Dentistry. He served as the Chief of the United States Navy Dental Corps twice, from 1932 to 1933 and again from 1948 to 1950.
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Edgar Ewing Brandon
1865 - 1957 (92 years)
Edgar Ewing Brandon was a professor of French and college administrator who served twice as acting president of Miami University and was an expert on the Marquis de Lafayette. Born in York Springs, Pennsylvania, Brandon earned an A.B. degree from the University of Michigan, a A.M. degree from the University of Missouri in 1897 and a Docteur d'Universite degree from the University of Paris in 1904.
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Marika Cifor
Marika Cifor is an American archivist and feminist academic known for her work in archival science, library science, and digital studies. Her research focuses on community archives, HIV/AIDS, affect theory, and approaches to archival practice rooted in social justice. She is an assistant professor at the University of Washington Information School. She also holds an adjunct faculty appointment in UW's Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies department.
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Carl Georg Brunius
1793 - 1869 (76 years)
Carl Georg Brunius was a classical scholar, art historian, archaeologist and architect. He served as a professor and rector at Lund University. During 1833-59, he led the restoration work of Lund Cathedral.
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John Henderson Jr.
1870 - 1923 (53 years)
John Brooks Henderson Jr. was an American diplomat, educator, and malacologist. Early life Henderson was born in Pike County, Missouri on February 18, 1870. He was the son of United States Senator John Brooks Henderson and social activist Mary Foote Henderson, who was known as "The Empress of Sixteenth Street." His father was known as the Senator who introduced the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution that abolished slavery and one of seven Republicans who voted against the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in May 1868.
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Émile Mâle
1862 - 1954 (92 years)
Émile Mâle was a French art historian, one of the first to study medieval, mostly sacral French art and the influence of Eastern European iconography thereon. He was a member of the Académie française, and a director of the Académie de France à Rome.
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D. H. Turner
1931 - 1985 (54 years)
Derek Howard Turner was an English museum curator and art historian who specialised in liturgical studies and illuminated manuscripts. He worked at the British Museum and the British Library from 1956 until his death, focusing on exhibitions, scholarship, and loans.
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Christoph Wilhelm Jacob Gatterer
1759 - 1838 (79 years)
Christoph Wilhelm Jacob Gatterer was a German cameralist and natural historian born in Göttingen. He was the son of historian Johann Christoph Gatterer . He studied natural sciences and mineralogy in Göttingen, earning his degree in 1778. In 1787 he became a professor of agriculture, forestry and technology at the University of Heidelberg. He later became a professor of diplomatics, and in 1803 was appointed director of the Schloßgarten in Heidelberg.
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Antal Hekler
1882 - 1940 (58 years)
Antal Hekler was a Hungarian/German classical archaeologist and art historian. He was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Life He wrote his doctoral thesis in political science in 1903 and then studied classical archaeology in Munich under Adolf Furtwängler, where he wrote his second doctoral thesis, before he returned to his birthplace Budapest, where he first worked at the city's national museum and later held a chair for Christian archaeology and history of art at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Budapest.
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Horst Gerson
1907 - 1978 (71 years)
Horst Gerson was a German-Dutch art historian. Biography Gerson was born in Berlin on 2 March 1907, and after studying art history in Vienna, he became a pupil and assistant of Cornelis Hofstede de Groot and worked for Hofstede de Groot's RKD during the years 1934–1966, becoming a Dutch citizen in 1940 and becoming director of the RKD on 1 January 1954. He was the nephew of Karl Lilienfeld, who had assisted Hofstede de Groot before him. In 1966 he became professor of art history at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, and during the years 1966–1975 he was head of the Kunsthistorisch Instituut Groningen.
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Esther Baker Steele
1835 - 1911 (76 years)
Esther Baker Steele was an American educator, author, editor, and philanthropist of the long nineteenth century. She aided her husband, Dr. J. Dorman Steele in his fourteen-week Barnes' Brief Histories series of books, these publications being, Brief History of the United States, 1871; France, 1875; Centenary History of United States, 1875; Ancient Peoples, 1881; Mediaeval and Modern Peoples, 1883; General History, 1883; Greece, with Selected Readings, 1884; Rome, with Selected Readings, 1885; and Revised United States, 1885. She did most of the work upon Brief History of the United States, which proved a phenomenal success.
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Friedrich Matz
1843 - 1874 (31 years)
Friedrich Matz was a German archaeologist. His nephew, also named Friedrich Matz , was as well a noted archaeologist. From 1863 he studied philology and archaeology at the University of Bonn as a favored student of Otto Jahn. In 1867 he received his doctorate with a dissertation thesis on Philostratus, titled De Philostratorum in describendis imaginibus fide specimen prius. Afterwards, he took a study trip to Greece and Italy, during which time, he conducted extensive studies of ancient sarcophagi. In 1870 he was tasked by the Central Directorate of the German Archaeological Institute to create a register of ancient sarcophagi.
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Abu'l-Fadl ibn al-Amid
912 - 970 (58 years)
Abu 'l-Fadl Muhammad ibn Abi Abdallah al-Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Katib, commonly known after his father as Ibn al-'Amid was a Persian statesman who served as the vizier of the Buyid ruler Rukn al-Dawla for thirty years, from 940 until his death in 970. His son, , also called Ibn al-'Amid, succeeded him in his office.
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Wilhelm Neumann
1849 - 1919 (70 years)
Carl Johann Wilhelm Neumann was a Baltic German architect and art historian. Neumann's family moved to Kreutzburg during Wilhelm's childhood. When he was 15 years old, he worked as an apprentice at Paul Max Bertschy's engineering office during the construction of the Riga–Dünaburg Railway. After this he studied at the Riga Polytechnicum, and beginning 1875 at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.
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Dick Haymes
1918 - 1980 (62 years)
Richard Benjamin Haymes was an Argentinian singer, songwriter and actor. He was one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, an actor, television host, and songwriter.
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Karl Voll
1867 - 1917 (50 years)
Karl Voll was German art historian specialising in Dutch renaissance and baroque art. Career Voll studied Romance languages and English at the University of Munich, and from 1889 tough at a private school in Weyarn, from 1892-96 in Freising. He later studied art history and from 1986 became a full time art critic for the Allgemeine Zeitung. In 1896 he received his doctorate in Romance Studies in Munich, and in 1900 he graduated in Art History at the University of Munich.
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George Jessel
1898 - 1981 (83 years)
George Albert "Georgie" Jessel was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and film producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies. He was widely known by his nickname, the "Toastmaster General of the United States," for his frequent role as the master of ceremonies at political and entertainment gatherings. Jessel originated the title role in the stage production of The Jazz Singer.
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Edward Henry Blakeney
1869 - 1955 (86 years)
Edward Henry Blakeney was an English classical scholar and poet, born in Mitcham. He died in his hometown Winchester. Life Edward Henry Blakeney was the son of William Blakeney of Westward Ho!, a Paymaster-in-Chief in the Navy. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1891 and M.A. in 1895. From 1895 to 1901 he was headmaster of Sir Roger Manwood's School in Sandwich, from 1901 to 1904 headmaster of Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow, and from 1904 to 1918 headmaster of King's Ely. He was an Assistant Master at Winchester College fro...
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Archie Wilmotte Leslie Bray
1883 - 1942 (59 years)
Archibald Wilmotte Leslie Bray was an English-American educator. Bray served as a founder and head of Department of Biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , between 1925 and his death in 1942. Bray is credited by Nobel laureate Harold Ulrey as being an inspiration for him in switching from psychology to the natural sciences. A popular teacher at several universities including University of Montana, Harvard and Rensselaer, a prominent freshman dormitory at RPI is named in his honor.
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Sam Jaffe
1891 - 1984 (93 years)
Shalom "Sam" Jaffe was an American actor, teacher, musician, and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Asphalt Jungle . He also appeared in The Day the Earth Stood Still and Ben-Hur , and is additionally known for his roles as the titular character in Gunga Din and as the "High Lama" in Lost Horizon .
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Wilhelm Vöge
1868 - 1952 (84 years)
Wilhelm Vöge was a German art historian, the discoverer of the Reichenau School of painting and one of the most important medievalistss of the early 20th century. Whitney Stoddard called him the "father of modern stylistic analysis" for medieval art.
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Liane Haid
1895 - 2000 (105 years)
Juliane "Liane" Haid was an Austrian actress and singer. She has often been referred to as Austria's first movie star. Biography Juliane Haid was born in Vienna on 16 August 1895, the first child to Georg Haid and Juliane Haid . She had two younger sisters, Grit, who also became an actress, and Johanna .
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Peter Brown
1758 - 1799 (41 years)
Peter Brown was an English naturalist and natural history illustrator of Danish ancestry who worked mainly in London. Life and work Brown was an associate of the great English naturalists Thomas Pennant and Joseph Banks. Though primarily an illustrator, he wrote the scientific descriptions of some species, such as the brightly marked North American Arctiid moth Haploa clymene. Brown's illustrations included birds, botanical subjects and insects.
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Wolfgang Lotz
1912 - 1981 (69 years)
Wolfgang Lotz was a German art historian specialized in Italian Renaissance architecture. Life and work Lotz first studied Law in Freiburg im Breisgau and then art history at the Universities of Munich and Hamburg, where he was a student of Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich. In 1937, he completed his Ph.D. dissertation on Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola's architecture. He first worked at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, and after his return from military service he was assigned to the International Commission for Monuments in Munich. Then he worked as deputy director at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich.
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Helen Louise Babcock
1867 - 1929 (62 years)
Helen Louise B. Babcock was an American educator, elocutionist, and dramatic reader. Early years and education Helen Louise Bailey was born in Galva, Illinois. August 13, 1867. She early displayed a marked talent for elocution and on reaching woman's estate she decided to make dramatic reading her profession. With that aim she became a pupil in the Cumnock School of Oratory of the Northwestern University, and, being an earnest student, she was graduated with the highest honors.
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Wilhelm Waetzoldt
1880 - 1945 (65 years)
Wilhelm Waetzoldt was a German art historian, professor of art history in Halle, Geheimer Oberregierungsrat in the Prussian Ministry of Culture and from 1927 to 1933 general director of the Berlin State Museums.
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Richard Sedlmaier
1890 - 1963 (73 years)
Richard Sedlmaier was a German art historian. living and working Born in Würzburg, Sedlmaier was the son of the merchant Adalbert Sedlmaier and his wife Auguste née Hagen. He grew up in Würzburg and passed his Abitur in 1909. From 1909 to 1916 he studied art history, archaeology and literary history at the universities of Munich, Wien, Berlin and Würzburg . In 1916 he was awarded the title of Dr. phil. in Würzburg with the work Grundlagen der Rokoko-Ornamentik in Frankreich doctorates. From 1917 he was curator at the Museum of Art History of the University of Würzburg. In 1923 habilitated he ...
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August Friedrich Schweigger
1783 - 1821 (38 years)
August Friedrich Schweigger was a German naturalist born in Erlangen. He was the younger brother of scientist Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger . He studied medicine, zoology and botany at Erlangen, and following graduation spent time in Berlin and Paris . In 1809 he was appointed professor of botany and medicine at the University of Königsberg. In 1815, he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. On a research trip to Sicily, he was murdered near Agrigento on 28 June 1821.
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William Edwards Huntington
1844 - 1930 (86 years)
William Edwards Huntington was an American university dean and president. He was born at Hillsboro, Illinois, served as private and first lieutenant in the Wisconsin Infantry in 1864–1865, and was educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and at Boston University , where he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 1884 to 1904, president of the university in 1904–1911, and dean of the graduate department after 1911. In early life he was a Methodist minister, having been ordained in 1868, and he held pastorates in Massachusetts at Nahant , Roslindale , Newton , Cambridge , and Bosto...
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Wilhelm Koehler
1884 - 1959 (75 years)
Wilhelm Reinhold Walter Koehler was a German art historian. He was a professor at the University of Jena from 1924, but moved to Harvard University in 1932 as a result of clashes with the Nazi government. Named to the William Dorr Boardman Professor of Fine Arts in 1950, he retired in 1953.
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