Joseph Grubb Alexander (1887 - 1932)

Motion Picture Screenwriter. A former civil engineer, he started his career as a vaudeville songwriter and later wrote plays. He began writing motion picture screenplays with Universal Studios in the mid-1910s and worked on a number of serials.  He later wrote for Fox Studios and signed a contract with Warner Brothers in 1928. In all, […]

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.

Arne Jacobsen (1902 - 1971)

Architect, Industrial designer. Professor of architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1956 to 1965. Arne Jacobsen helped to introduce functionalism into Denmark in the 1930s. He gained international fame through his work in almost all areas of architecture generating a renewal both in housing, in public buildings such as town halls and schools, […]

Charles Alexander (1897 - 1962)

Author. He wrote such books as “The Fang in the Forest,” “Bobbie, a Great Collie,” the “Abel and Ailse” series and over 200 stories in “Collier’s Sunset” magazine. He won the O. Henry Memorial award with his story “As a Dog Should.” (bio by: Laurie)

Jessie Mary Jacob (1970 - 1970)

Stained-glass artist.

Sibilla Aleramo (1876 - 1960)

Author, Social Reformer. Born Rina Faccio in Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy, her first novel, “A Woman” was published in 1906 and republished in 1973. It gained wide acclaim for it’s autobiographical telling the story of her escape from a forced marriage to a man who had raped her and of her struggle to live independently as […]

Wilfred Jackson (1906 - 1988)

Motion Picture Animator, Director. He was a key associate of Walt Disney for over 30 years. Wilfred Emmons Jackson was born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles. Cartoons fascinated him from childhood. While studying at the Otis College of Art and Design in 1928, he approached Disney and offered to pay him “tuition” for […]

Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (1898 - 1984)

Poet. He was awarded the the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977. Among his books are “La Destrucción o el Amor,” “Poemas de la Consumación,” and “Diálogos del Conocimiento.”

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 […]

Sholem Aleichem (1859 - 1916)

Author. Born Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich in Voronko, Russia, he became to be considered one of the great Yiddish writers, being best known for his humorous tales of life among the poverty-ridden and oppressed Russian Jews of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His works include five novels, many plays, and some 300 short stories. […]

Harry Jackson (1924 - 2011)

Artist. He was a renowned painter-sculptor, best known both as an abstract expressionist and a Western artist. He began his career in 1943, as the US Marine Corps’ youngest combat sketch artist serving with the Marine’s V Amphibious Corps general intelligence group during World War II. After his discharge, he went to New York City […]

Bess Streeter Aldrich (1881 - 1954)

Author, Novelist. Her writing career spanned over forth years, during which she published of around 200 short stories and articles, 13 novels, and two books of short stories. Born Geneva Streeter, she was the youngest of eight children. A writer since early childhood, she won a writing contest at age 14 and another at age […]

Richard Morris Hunt (1827 - 1895)

Distinguished architect, designer and influential taste-maker. One of five children of Jonathan Hunt, a prosperous lawyer and landowner, who served in Congress and in the House of Representatives in Washington. Richard was educated in the comfortable worlds of New Haven and Boston; receiving his architectural training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, being the […]

Wroe Alderson (1898 - 1965)

Author.  Considered by many to be a leading marketing executive ahead of his time, he authored the books “Marketing Behavior and Executive Action,” “Theory in Marketing,” and “Planning and Problem Solving in Marketing,” in which he theorized that mathematical models and quantitative techniques could be used to analyze consumer tastes and determine the best methods […]

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 […]