List of people from Philadelphia

The following is a list of notable people presently or previously associated with the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

Academia

Joseph Addison Alexander (1809–1860), clergyman and biblical scholar Daniel Amey (1941–2026), application engineer E. Digby Baltzell (1915–1996), sociologist, author, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania Ellen Bass (born 1947), professor, poet, and author Leon Bass (1925–2015), educator and Benjamin Franklin High School principal Aaron Beck (1921–2021), psychiatrist, inventor of cognitive therapy, and Penn School of Medicine professor Algernon Sydney Biddle (1847–1891), lawyer and Penn Law School professor Ray Birdwhistell (1918–1994), anthropologist, University of Pennsylvania professor, and inventor of kinesics Atherton Blight (1834–1909), lawyer, businessperson, author, diarist, philanthropist, and Art Club of Philadelphia founding member Alfred Bloom, linguist, professor, and Swarthmore College president Francis Bohlen (1868–1942), Penn Law School professor Derek Bok (born 1930), lawyer, Harvard Law School dean, and former Harvard University president Lisa Bowleg, George Washington University social psychology professor Ruby Chappelle Boyd (1919–2024), librarian David D. Burns (born 1942), psychiatrist, author, Penn School of Medicine psychiatry professor Noam Chomsky (born 1928), linguist, Far-left political activist, anarchist, and professor Gordon Clark (1902–1985), Christian theologian and professor Leda Cosmides (born 1957), psychologist, helped develop evolutionary psychology field Philip D. Curtin (1922–2009), Africa historian on Atlantic slave trade Steven Drizin, lawyer and professor Drew Gilpin Faust (born 1947), historian, University of Pennsylvania administrator, and Harvard University president R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983), architect, systems theorist, author, University of Pennsylvania design professor Andrew Gelman (born 1965), Columbia University professor, statistics and political science Gaylord P. Harnwell (1903–1982), University of Pennsylvania professor and president Earl G. Harrison (1899–1955), Penn Law School dean and former INS commissioner Marc Lamont Hill (born 1978), professor, journalist, activist, and BET News correspondent Agnes Irwin (1841–1914), Agnes Irwin School founder and first dean of Radcliffe College Martin M. Kaplan (1915–2004), virologist and public health official Seymour S. Kety (1915–2000), neuroscientist and schizophrenia researcher Lawrence Klein (1920–2013), economist, Nobel laureate, University of Pennsylvania economics professor C. Everett Koop (1916–2013), U.S. Surgeon General Byard Lancaster (1942–2012), avant-garde jazz saxophonist and flutist Alain LeRoy Locke (1885–1954), writer, philosopher, educator, and first African-American Rhodes Scholar Kenneth Margerison (1946–2025), historian Margaret Mead (1901–1978), cultural anthropologist and author Virginia Ramey Mollenkott (1932–2020), feminist theologian and writer William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796–1877), considered "father of parochial schools" John Pittenger (1930–2009), lawyer, academic, and former Pennsylvania House of Representatives member Philip Rieff (1922–2006), sociologist, cultural critic, and University of Pennsylvania professor Vera Rubin (1928–2016), astronomer, cosmologist, professor at Georgetown University, and research fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science Louis B. Schwartz (1913–2003), University of Pennsylvania Law School law professor Dora Adele Shoemaker (1873–1962), educator, writer Jacob Soll (born 1968), historian and MacArthur Fellow Lawrence H. Summers (born 1954), economist, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and Harvard University president George Thayer (1933–1973), American political writer Howard M. Temin (1934–1994), Nobel Prize co-laureate in physiology or medicine Cornelius Van Til (1895–1987), Christian theologian, professor, originator of modern presuppositional apologetics Lawrence Venuti (born 1953), translation theorist and translation historian Andrew Weil (born 1942), celebrity doctor and alternative medicine advocate Gayraud Wilmore (1921–2020), writer, historian, ethicist, educator, and theologian Walter E. Williams (1936–2020), economist, commentator, and academic Harris Wofford (1926–2019), Peace Corps director, Bryn Mawr College president, U.S. senator appointee Bernard Wolfman (1924–2011), University of Pennsylvania Law School law professor and dean Josh Wurman (born 1960), meteorologist on Storm Chasers

Art and architecture

Julian Abele (1881–1950), architect who contributed to the design of over 400 buildings Robb Armstrong (born 1962), African-American cartoonist, creator of Jump Start Edmund Bacon (1910–2005), urban planner, architect, educator, and author Bill Bamberger (born 1956), documentary photographer and photojournalist Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951), creator of the Barnes Collection of Art and Argyrol inventor Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter (born 1981), multimedia artist and activist Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942), portrait painterCecilia Beaux Cecilia Beaux William Bell (1830–1910), photographerWill Stapp, John Hannavy (ed.), Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Vol. 1 (Routledge, 2007), pp. 142–143, Google Books Alexander Calder (1898–1976), sculptor Alexander Milne Calder (1846–1923), sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder (1870–1945), sculptor John Carlin (1813–1891), painter Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), impressionist painter and printmaker Florence Van Leer Earle Coates (1850–1927), poet Robert Crumb (born 1943), underground comics artist, writer Heather Dewey-Hagborg (born 1982), information artist and bio-hacker Marley Dias, activist and writer Thomas Eakins (1844–1916), realist painter, photographer, sculptor, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts professor Frank Heyling Furness (1839–1912), architect who designed over 600 buildings Sonia Gechtoff (1926–2018), abstract expressionist painter William W. Gilchrist Jr., impressionist painter Ginger Gilmour (born 1949), sculptor and first wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour Phoebe Gloeckner (born 1960), cartoonist, illustrator, painter, novelist Elizabeth Shippen Green (1871–1954), children's books illustrator Hal Hirshorn (1965–2025), painter and photographer Donelson Hoopes (1932–2006), art historian Ian Hornak (1944–2002), draughtsman, painter, and printmakerStephen Bennett Phillips, Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz, "Ian Hornak Transparent Barricades," exhibition catalogue, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Fine Art Program, Washington D.C., 2012Joan Adan, Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz, "Transparent Barricades: Ian Hornak, A Retrospective," exhibition catalogue, Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale, California, May 2012 Amy Ignatow (born 1977), illustrator, cartoonist, and author Louis Kahn (1901–1974), architect Bil Keane (1922–2011), cartoonist, The Family Circus Walt Kelly (1913–1973), cartoonist, Pogo H. Mather Lippincott Jr. (1921–2010), architect Henry P. McIlhenny (1910–1986), art and antique connoisseur, philanthropist, curator, and Philadelphia Museum of Art chairman John Moran (1831–1902), photographer and artist Alice Neel (1900–1984), painter Albert Newsam (1809–1864), born deaf and former artist Linda Nochlin (1931–2017), feminist art historian and Bryn Mawr College professor Martin Nodell (1915–2006), comic book artist and creator of the original Green Lantern Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), artist and progenitor of the Peale family of American artists Edmund R. Purves (1897–1964), architect William H. Rau (1855–1920), photographer]Sarah Weatherwax, John Hannavy (ed.), William Herman Rau, Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Vol. 1 (Routledge, 2007), pp. 1184, Google Books Seymour Remenick (1923–1999), artist Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts (1871–1927), painter and founder of Concord Art Association Judith Schermer (born 1941), artist and writer Carolee Schneemann (1939–2019), visual experimental artist on sexuality and gender Mary B. Schuenemann (1898–1992), painter Denise Scott Brown (born 1931), architect, planner, writer, and educator Sarai Sherman (1922–2013), painter and sculptor Grover Simcox (1867–1966), illustrator, naturalist, and polymath Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863–1935), illustrator Willi Smith (1948–1987), fashion designer Zoe Strauss (born 1970), photographer William Strickland (1788–1854), architect and civil engineer Thomas Sully (1783–1872), portrait painter of national political leaders Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), one of the first African-American painters Daniel Traub (born 1971), photographer and filmmaker Horace Trumbauer (1868–1938), architect Robert Venturi (1925–2018), architect Thomas Ustick Walter (1804–1887), architect and American Institute of Architects co-founder and president Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009), visual artist Jamie Wyeth (born 1946), painter N.C. Wyeth (1882–1945), artist and illustrator Lily Yeh (born 1941), artist

Business

Frank Baldino Jr. (1953–2010), pharmacologist, scientist, and Cephalon co-founder John C. Bogle (1929–2019), investor, money manager, and Vanguard founder Amar Bose (1929–2013), founder and chairman, Bose David L. Cohen (born 1955), senior executive vice president and chief lobbyist for Comcast, chief of staff to Philadelphia mayor, U.S. ambassador to Canada nominee Pat Croce (born 1954), entrepreneur, Philadelphia 76ers executive and part-owner, author, and television personality George Dashnau (1923–2001), advertising executive who started first mail order delivery service to supply human skulls Charles Henry Davis (1865–1951), businessperson, civil engineer, philanthropist; founded World Peace Movement Warren Lyford DeLano (1972–2009), advocate for increased open sourcing and PyMol creator George H. Earle Jr. (1856–1928), attorney Maria Anna Fisher (1819–1911), African-American baker, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Kenneth Frazier (born 1954), Merck & Co. chief executive officer A. O. Granger (Arthur Otis Granger; 1846–1914), industrialist and soldier Albert M. Greenfield (1887–1967), local realty magnate, philanthropist, and political activist Solomon R. Guggenheim (1861–1949), Yukon Gold Company founder and philanthropist who established Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Richard Hayne (born 1947), Urban Outfitters founder and chief executive officer Michael Johns (born 1964), healthcare executive and former White House presidential speechwriter Eldridge R. Johnson (1867–1945), Victor Talking Machine Company founder Tom Knox, UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania chief executive officer and former Philadelphia mayoral candidate John Leamy (1757–1839), Spanish Empire trade pioneer J. Howard Marshall (1905–1995), oil businessman, Koch, Inc. stakeholder, husband of Anna Nicole Smith George Meade (1741–1808), merchant Richard W. Meade (1778–1828), merchant and art collector Samuel Meeker (1763–1831), merchant Jim Murray, Ronald McDonald House Charities co-founder and former Philadelphia Eagles general manager Joel Myers (born 1939), AccuWeather founder and executive chairman Pat Olivieri (1910–1970), founder of Pat's King of Steaks and reputed creator of the cheesesteak William S. Paley (1901–1990), CBS chief executive Randal Pinkett (born 1971), entrepreneur and The Apprentice 4 winner Felix Rappaport (1952–2018), Foxwoods Resort and Casino chief executive officer Lynda Resnick (born 1943), co-owner of Roll International, which owns POM Wonderful, FIJI Water, and Teleflora Brian L. Roberts (born 1959), Comcast Corporation chairman and chief executive officer Michael G. Rubin (born 1972), Kynetic founder and chief executive officer, Philadelphia 76ers part owner, and GSI Commerce founder and former chief executive officer Stephen A. Schwarzman (born 1947), The Blackstone Group founder and chief executive officer Ed Snider (1933–2016), Comcast Spectacor chairman Justus Strawbridge (1838–1911), department store founder