39.9292° N, 75.2300° W

PHILADELPHIA

Most Famous People Born in Philadelphia, USA

Notable people
5,575
Peak decade
1940s
Median birth year
1928
Most distinctive
Baseball 6.0×

The original American capital, then the capital of nothing in particular, then a sports town. Philadelphia's notables run thick through the 18th century — lawyers, philanthropists, financiers — and then settle into a long, steady output of baseball players, basketball players, jazz bandleaders, and character actors. The city has one of the highest shares of notables in organized labor of the early 20th century and one of the deepest benches of soul singers of the late 20th.

Standouts

What Philadelphia Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Politician is Philadelphia's biggest profession — 9% of all notables (482).

Philadelphia over-indexes on baseball 6.0× the global rate.

Philadelphia under-produces football — only 0.4× the global rate.

  1. Politician 482 0.7×
  2. Actor 414 1.4×
  3. Baseball 383 6.0×
  4. Basket 260 3.7×
  5. Football 251 0.4×
  6. Music 206 2.6×
  7. Lawyer 185 1.9×
  8. Singer 161 1.4×
  1. Baseball 383 6.0×
  2. Basket 260 3.7×
  3. Boxer 72 3.3×
  4. Rower 57 2.8×
  5. Music 206 2.6×
  6. Officer 84 2.3×
  7. Lawyer 185 1.9×
  8. Film 113 1.6×
  1. Football 251 0.4×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Philadelphia's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000
  • Sports
  • Politics & Law
  • Film & TV
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Art & Design
  • Other
All5,575
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Showing 108 of 5,575 notable people

0029 ECONOMIST

Henry George

1839 - 1897

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0200 AUTHOR

Ignatius L. Donnelly

1831 - 1901

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0224 POLITICIAN

John Wanamaker

1838 - 1922

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0286 BUSINESS

Charles Yerkes

1837 - 1905

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0315 WRITER

Frank R. Stockton

1834 - 1902

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0496 PAINTER

William Stanley Haseltine

1835 - 1900

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0501 PAINTER

William Trost Richards

1833 - 1905

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0568 ARCHITECT

Frank Furness

1839 - 1912

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0581 PHYSICIAN

William Williams Keen

1837 - 1932

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0725 POLITICIAN

Roswell P. Flower

1835 - 1899

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0774 POLITICIAN

Leon Abbett

1836 - 1894

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0810 OFFICER

John R. Brooke

1838 - 1926

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0885 POET

Charlotte Forten Grimké

1837 - 1914

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0931 ARCHITECT

Elijah E. Myers

1832 - 1909

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1057 DIPLOMAT

John C. Caldwell

1833 - 1912

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1113 POLITICIAN

Charles F. Manderson

1837 - 1911

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1152 ZOOLOGIST

George Washington Tryon

1838 - 1888

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1211 COMPOSER

Lewis Redner

1831 - 1908

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1282 WRITER

Anna Alcott Pratt

1831 - 1893

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1289 LITERARY

Horace Howard Furness

1833 - 1912

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1407 MATHEMATICIAN

John Howard Van Amringe

1835 - 1915

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1411 ENTOMOLOGIST

Herman Strecker

1836 - 1901

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1513 ENGINEER

Fairman Rogers

1833 - 1900

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1614 ENGINEER

Lewis Wolfley

1839 - 1910

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1634 HISTORIAN

Henry Martyn Baird

1832 - 1906

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1798 PAINTER

Edmund Darch Lewis

1835 - 1910

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2060 BUSINESS

Franklin B. Gowen

1836 - 1889

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2132 POLITICIAN

John C. Smith (politician)

1832 - 1910

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2141 POLITICIAN

Charles H. Mansur

1835 - 1895

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2300 POLITICIAN

Alan Wood Jr.

1834 - 1902

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2322 MILITAR

John Trout Greble

1834 - 1861

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2388 ENTREPRENEUR

Adam Forepaugh

1831 - 1890

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2390 BANK

Joseph William Drexel

1833 - 1888

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2424 POLITICIAN

John Brewer Brown

1836 - 1898

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2437 POET

Eleanor C. Donnelly

1838 - 1917

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2500 DIARIST

Cornelia Adair

1837 - 1921

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2544 PAINTER

Xanthus Russell Smith

1839 - 1929

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2547 POLITICIAN

Chapman Freeman

1832 - 1904

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2556 POLITICIAN

William Ward (Pennsylvania)

1837 - 1895

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2563 POLITICIAN

John V. Creely

1839 - 1900

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2585 PHILOLOGIST

Lewis Packard

1836 - 1884

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2712 OFFICER

Norwood Penrose Hallowell

1839 - 1914

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2727 LAWYER

Joseph George Rosengarten

1835 - 1921

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2750 MILITAR

Owen Thomas Edgar

1831 - 1929

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2862 COLONEL

Charles R. Jennison

1834 - 1884

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2878 LAWYER

George Hugh Smith

1834 - 1915

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2987 OFFICER

Edward Needles Hallowell

1836 - 1871

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3004 PHYSICIAN

Joseph Janvier Woodward

1833 - 1884

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3049 CHESS

William Meredith (Schachkomponist)

1835 - 1903

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3073 PHOTOGRAPHER

Alfred Shea Addis

1832 - 1886

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3147 POLITICIAN

Eckley Brinton Coxe

1839 - 1895

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3233 DIPLOMAT

J. Meredith Read

1837 - 1896

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3277 ACTOR

Rose Eytinge

1835 - 1911

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3313 EXPLORER

William Henry Gilder

1838 - 1900

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3337 PAINTER

George Frederick Bensell

1837 - 1879

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3346 BUSINESS

Robert Curtis Ogden

1836 - 1913

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3348 BUSINESS

Alexander C. McClurg

1832 - 1901

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3352 LAWYER

Simon Sterne

1839 - 1901

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3355 BUSINESS

Persis Foster Eames Albee

1836 - 1914

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3370 POLITICIAN

Alfred H. Love

1830 - 1913

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3390 OFFICER

Kidder Breese

1831 - 1881

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3411 OFFICER

William McCandless

1834 - 1884

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3427 SURGEON

John H. Brinton

1832 - 1907

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3453 GENEALOGIST

Thomas Harrison Montgomery

1830 - 1905

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3511 ENTREPRENEUR

Henry Phipps Jr.

1839 - 1930

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3545 SOLDIER

Robert Burns Beath

1839 - 1914

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3558 JOURNALIST

Susan E. Dickinson

1832 - 1915

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3561 DIPLOMAT

Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach

1831 - 1890

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3633 CHEMIST

Peter Dirck Keyser

1835 - 1897

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3655 PRIEST

Leighton Coleman

1837 - 1907

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3692 ACTOR

Henrietta Baker Chanfrau

1837 - 1909

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3760 ACTRESS

Celia Logan

1837 - 1904

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3858 EDUCATOR

Noah K. Davis

1830 - 1910

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3878 WRITER

Lucy Hamilton Hooper

1835 - 1893

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3944 PHYSICIAN

Bushrod Washington James

1836 - 1903

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3997 WRITER

Jeannette Walworth

1835 - 1918

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4059 BOTANIST

William Marriott Canby

1831 - 1904

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4089 PAINTER

George Emerick Essig

1838 - 1923

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4139 MARINE

Richard Binder

1839 - 1912

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4182 MILITAR

Jacob Ford Kent

1835 - 1918

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4354 NAVY

Edmund Haffee

Born 1832

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4361 ACTOR

Harry Hawk

1837 - 1916

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4362 ACTOR

Susan Denin

1835 - 1875

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4364 BANK

James Hood Wright

1836 - 1894

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4381 MISSING

Anthony Taylor (Medal of Honor)

1837 - 1894

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4389 PRISONER

Richard Hamilton (Medal of Honor)

1836 - 1881

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4443 ROBBER

Jimmy Hope

1836 - 1905

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4537 OFFICER

Forrester L. Taylor

1833 - 1907

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4621 NAVY

Joseph E. Vantine

1835 - 1904

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4642 OFFICER

Andrew Boyd Cummings

1830 - 1863

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4714 MARINE

James A. Stewart (Medal of Honor)

Born 1839

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4797 NAVY

John Lawson (Medal of Honor)

1837 - 1919

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4841 MILITAR

Robert A. Gray

1834 - 1906

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5085 MILITAR

H. Boyd McKeen

1835 - 1864

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5145 MILITAR

Harry C. Egbert

1839 - 1899

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5183 OFFICER

J. Hinckley Clark

1835 - 1889

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5195 JOURNALIST

Charles E. Warburton

1837 - 1896

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5279 PHYSICIAN

Charles Sutherland (Surgeon General)

1831 - 1895

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5306 NAVY

Robert T. Clifford

1835 - 1873

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5311 NAVY

John Brazell

1837 - 1866

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5364 MISSING

William R. Fox

1837 - 1888

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5403 LIEUTENANT

Charles Henry Alden

1836 - 1906

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5430 DEVELOPER

William Wainwright (land developer)

1836 - 1904

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5462 MILITAR

John Johnson (Medal of Honor, 1839)

Born 1839

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5467 MILITAR

William Jones (sailor)

Born 1831

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5472 SOLDIER

William E. Goodman

1838 - 1912

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5499 INVENTOR

Kate Duval Hughes

Born 1837

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5544 BOTANIST

Charles Schäffer

1838 - 1903

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