Alexander Hamilton (1812 - 1882)

Lawyer and jurist. Born in Philadelphia, he came to St. Louis in 1835 and began a career in law that lasted for nearly fifty years. Among his contemporaries in the legal field were Edward Bates, Hamilton Gamble and Henry Geyer. The latter two were participants in the Dred Scott trials.Hamilton was first appointed a judge […]

Gustave Doré (1832 - 1883)

Artist. Born in Strausbourg, he is considered by many to be one of the greatest illustrators of all time. His first major success in Paris came in 1861, when his edition of Dante’s “Inferno” (prohibitively priced at 100 francs) became an unexpected bestseller, eventually going through over 200 editions.  Doré’s best-known work is his edition […]

Frank Hamer (1884 - 1955)

Western Lawman. Born in Fairview, Texas, he was working as a wrangler on ranch when he helped the local sheriff capture a horse thief in 1905. He joined the Texas Rangers in 1906, patrolled the border in south Texas, resigned become the City Marshal of Navasota, Texas in 1908 and became a special officer in […]

Donfeld (1934 - 2007)

Costume Designer. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute before being hired as an art director (at age 19) by Capitol Records,  where he designed album covers. After several years he left Capitol to become a costume designer in the film industry. Donfeld’s first screen assignment was 1961’s “Sanctuary”,  for which he designed Lee Remick’s costumes. […]

Jesse Lee Hall (1849 - 1911)

Western Lawman. Born Jesse Lee Hall in Lexington, North Carolina, he moved to Texas in 1869 and became a City Marshal of Sherman. In August 1876, he became the second in command of Leander McNelly’s Special Forces, Texas Rangers. Serving in the Goliad region, he broke up a gang of vigilantes and became the acting […]

Donatello (1970 - 1466)

Acclaimed Italian Sculptor. One of the most important sculptors in the Renaissance. Among his works “Abramo e Isacco,” “Geremie,” “Giuditta e Olorferne,” “San Giorgio,” “Il Gattamelata,” “Salomé” and “Habacuk.” (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)

Alexander Polk Donaghho (1829 - 1970)

Alexander Polk Donaghho was a successful potter in Fredricktown, PA, for about 15 years, starting in 1855. By 1870, A.P. Donaghho moved to Parkersburg, WV, where he started the A.P. Donaghho Pottery Company. His company was on 14 acres near Bull Creek, which was known as “Pottery Junction” by the locals. Products produced by him […]

Inga Haag (1918 - 2009)

World War II Resistance Figure. Called in later years “the Mata Hari of Marylebone”, she was a secretary in the German Foreign Ministry who participated in the failed plot to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944. Born Ingeborg Helene Abshagen to an upper class Prussian family, she was sent to England for school in her […]

Óscar Domínguez (1906 - 1957)

Artist. He was born in La Laguna, Tenerife, Islas Canarias. He was a member of Spanish Painters School in Paris and was included in surrealist movement, as Dalí, Picasso or Miró. He moved to France during Spanish Civil War. Also, he invented a new tecnique known as Decalcomanía. Among his paintings “Composition au Taureau,” “La […]

William Slocum Groesbeck (1815 - 1897)

U.S. Congressman, Attorney. Born in Kinderhook, New York, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio with his family in 1816 when he was a child. He attended Augusta College in Kentucky and graduated from the law department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1835. He was admitted to the bar in Ohio the following year and […]

Robert Doisneau (1912 - 1994)

Acclaimed French Photographer. He is one of the most importants photographs of the XX Century. He is remembered for his photograph “Baiser de l’Hôtel de Ville.” Other works are “Les Petits Enfants au Lait,” “Les Pains de Picasso,” “L’Accordeoniste, Rue Mouffetard” and “Le Cheval Tombe.” (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)

Ahijah W. “Caige” Grimes (1850 - 1878)

Deputy Sheriff and former Texas Ranger.  He was  killed in a gunfight with the Sam Bass gang, 19 July 1878. It is difficult to fathom why on that Friday afternoon Ahijah A. Grimes challenged the three strangers who were approaching the general store. Ostensibly, it was due to the deputy sheriff he was with having […]

Ed Dodd (1902 - 1991)

Cartoonist. He is best remembered for his “Mark Trail” daily comic strip that began in April 1946 that featured a wildlife photographer and author, centering on environmental themes, and whose assignments inevitably lead to involvement in local environmental conflicts. The son of a minister, he went to work for Dan Beard, founder of the Boy […]

Christine Granville (1915 - 1952)

Anglo-Polish Spy. She was born on her parents’ estate at Mlodziesyn, thirty miles from Warsaw. Her father, Count Jerzy Skarbek, was a Roman Catholic; her mother, Stephanie Goldeder, was Jewish. On the 2nd. November 1938, at the Evangelical Reform Church in Warsaw, she married Jerzy Gizycki. Shortly after their marriage, he was sent to Ethiopia […]

Otto Dix (1891 - 1969)

Painter,  Printmaker.  A leader of Germany’s “New Objectivity” movement,  famed for his unflinching portrayals of World War I and the decadence of 1920s  Weimar society.  Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was born in Untermhaus,  Germany.  He studied at Dresden’s School of Decorative art (1909 to 1914) while privately absorbing influences from Post-Impressionism and early Expressionism.  At […]

Frederick Harris Goff (1858 - 1923)

Lawyer and Cleveland civic leader. Born in Blackbury, Illinois to Frederick C. and Catherine Brown Goff. Frederick received a bachelor degree of philosophy in 1881. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1884. Frederick was widely known for a civil leader. Frederick worked primarily in corporate law, specializing in reorganization and financial problems. During […]

Christian Dior (1905 - 1957)

Fashion Designer.  He was the founder of Christian Dior, one of the world’s most renowned fashion houses.  One of five children of a successful fertilizer manufacturer, he took an interest in art at an early age and would sell his fashion sketches outside the family home in Paris, France.  In 1928 he established a small […]

Rayner Goddard (1877 - 1971)

Lord Chief Justice Goddard was a notorious British judge of the early to mid 20th century and is often referred to as the “hanging judge.” Most famously Lord Goddard (who was the highest ranking British judge at the time) is remembered for the Derek Bentley trial in which Goddard has since been criticised for his […]

Jef Dillen (1970 - 1970)

Antiquarian and art-collector who had the astounding foresight to purchase the first copy of Rodin’s ‘the Thinker’ when Paris rejected it, to use as his own memorial. The same statue is on Rodin’s own grave in Meudon, France, but is a later copy.

Sir Francis Bernard Dicksee (1853 - 1928)

Artist. A member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he was born to a very artistic family; his father, brother and sister were all well-known artists. Elected president of the Royal Academy in 1924, he was knighted in 1925, but died suddenly three years later. (bio by: Kristen Conrad)  Family links:  Spouse:  Margaret Isabel Dicksee (1858 – […]

James Watson Gerard (1970 - 1874)

Social Reformer and Lawyer. Born in New York City, he was the son of William Gerard, a reputable merchant. James would graduate from Columbia College in 1811. Soon after his graduation he enrolled in volunteer company called “The Iron Greys.”  A raised defense of harbor during the war with Great Britain. He then began to […]

Louis Palma di Cesnola (1832 - 1904)

American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient. Born Luigi Palma di Cesnola, he was the son of a count and military officer at Rivarolo Canavese, Piedmont, in the Kingdom of Sardinia. At the age of 15, he joined the Sardinian army and served in the First Italian War of Independence. During the Battle of Novara […]

Daryl F. Gates (1926 - 2010)

Los Angeles Police Chief.  As head of the LAPD from 1978 to 1992,  his tenure was marked by controversy. Raised in Glendale,  California under poor circumstances, he gained an initial negative impression of the police after observing officers’ treatment of his alcoholic father. Gates had his own brush with the law at 16 when he […]

Anthony Devas (1911 - 1958)

Successful portrait artist on the 1940s and 1950s, whose works are in many UK national collections. (bio by: David Conway)

Reynaldo G. Garza (1915 - 2004)

First Mexican-American Federal Judge. Born the son of Mexican immigrants in Brownsville, Texas, he earned a law degree at the University of Texas in 1939. During WW II, he served in the Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1945 and returned to private law practice in Brownsville. In 1961, President Kennedy appointed him the first […]

Jean Despujols (1886 - 1965)

French Painter. His greatest body of work is held in toto at the Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. These works depict French Indochina before the destruction of World War II and the wars that followed it. He fled to the United States to escape the Nazi occupation of France, and […]

Earling Carothers “Jim” Garrison (1921 - 1992)

JFK Assassination Figure. He was the New Orleans District Attorney whose investigation into President John F. Kennedy’s assassination led to the trial of businessman Clay Shaw, who was the only person ever brough to trial in connection with the assassination. Shaw was later aquitted. Much of motion picture director Oliver Stone’s movie “JFK” was based […]

William Wallace Denslow (1856 - 1915)

Illustrator. Among his best known pictures are ‘What’s the Use?’ and ‘Victory.’ He illustrated the book ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ and also designed the costumes and scenery for plays such as ‘Wizard of Oz’ and ‘The Pearl and the Pumpkin.’ (bio by: Laurie)

Pat Garrett (1850 - 1908)

Western Law Officer. He was the sheriff that allegedly gunned down Billy the Kid. On February 29, 1908, he was traveling from Las Cruces, New Mexico to his ranch with Wayne Brazel and Carl Adamson. He got out of the buggy and while urinating a bullet slammed into the back of his head. He spun […]

Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747 - 1825)

French Designer and Painter. He moved to Egypt in the Expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte, and maded designs of monuments and landscapes that contributed to the birth of Egyptology. His works and the others expedicionaries appeared in “Description de l’Egypte” de Jomard. He also wrote “Voyage dans le Haute et Basse Egypte.” (bio by: José L […]