Governors
31 people, across 4 fields.
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882–1945Presidents32nd President who led the nation through the Great Depression and most of World War II.
Ronald Reagan 1911–2004Presidents40th president whose conservative domestic program and assertive Cold War strategy reshaped American politics.
Bill Clinton b. 1946Presidents42nd president whose centrist politics, economic agenda, and impeachment shaped the post-Cold War era.
George W. Bush b. 1946Presidents43rd president who led the country after the September 11 attacks and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Woodrow Wilson 1856–1924Presidents28th President who led the nation through World War I and championed the League of Nations.
Jimmy Carter 1924–2024Presidents39th president who emphasized human rights, brokered the Camp David Accords, and built a major post-presidential humanitarian legacy.
Earl Warren 1891–1974Law & the JudiciaryChief justice whose Court transformed civil rights, voting, representation, and criminal procedure.
Patrick Henry 1736–1799Political Leaders & StatecraftRevolutionary orator and Virginia leader remembered for mobilizing resistance and opposing centralized federal power.
Roger Williams 1603–1683Religion & Religious MovementsFounder of Rhode Island and early advocate of religious liberty and separation of church and state.
William Penn 1644–1718Political Leaders & StatecraftFounder of Pennsylvania who advanced representative government and religious toleration in colonial America.
Huey Long 1893–1935Political Leaders & StatecraftLouisiana governor and senator whose Share Our Wealth program pressured New Deal policy before his assassination.
George Wallace 1919–1998Notorious FiguresSegregationist governor whose campaigns helped shape racial backlash and modern populist politics.
Brigham Young 1801–1877Religion & Religious MovementsReligious and territorial leader who directed Mormon migration and settlement in the American West.
Sam Houston 1793–1863Political Leaders & StatecraftCommander at San Jacinto who became president of the Republic of Texas and later its governor and senator.
Andrew Johnson 1808–1875Presidents17th president whose obstruction of Reconstruction weakened protections for formerly enslaved people and led to impeachment.
William McKinley 1843–1901PresidentsTwenty-fifth president who led the Spanish-American War and overseas expansion before being assassinated.
Grover Cleveland 1837–1908PresidentsOnly president elected to nonconsecutive terms who championed limited government and the gold standard.
Calvin Coolidge 1872–1933PresidentsThirtieth president who cut taxes and federal spending during the economic expansion of the 1920s.
James K. Polk 1795–1849PresidentsEleventh president whose expansionist policies added the Southwest and Oregon to the United States.
John Hancock 1737–1793Political Leaders & StatecraftMerchant who presided over the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration first and largest.
Gifford Pinchot 1865–1946Environment, Agriculture & FoodFirst chief of the U.S. Forest Service and leading advocate of scientific conservation and managed public lands.
Nelson Rockefeller 1908–1979Political Leaders & StatecraftGovernor and unelected vice president whose drug laws set the template for mass incarceration.
William Henry Harrison 1773–1841PresidentsWhig general elected ninth president who died one month into his term.
Rutherford B. Hayes 1822–1893PresidentsNineteenth president whose disputed election settlement ended federal Reconstruction in the South.
Strom Thurmond 1902–2003Political Leaders & StatecraftLong-serving South Carolina senator who ran as a segregationist Dixiecrat and later joined the Republican Party.
John Winthrop 1588–1649Political Leaders & StatecraftLong-serving Massachusetts Bay governor whose vision of a covenant community influenced New England political culture.
John Tyler 1790–1862PresidentsFirst vice president to assume the presidency on a president's death and to annex Texas.
Robert La Follette 1855–1925Political Leaders & StatecraftWisconsin governor and senator who led the Progressive movement against railroad and corporate influence.
Charles Evans Hughes 1862–1948Law & the JudiciaryChief justice, governor, and secretary of state who guided the Court through major New Deal constitutional conflicts.
Adlai Stevenson II 1900–1965Political Leaders & StatecraftIllinois governor and two-time Democratic presidential nominee who later served as UN ambassador.
Gaylord Nelson 1916–2005Environment, Agriculture & FoodSenator and founder of Earth Day who helped make environmental protection a mass political movement.