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
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 556 notable births.
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.
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.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Music
- Writing
- Art & Design
- Other
- Filtered to 1840s Clear ×
Thomas Eakins
1844 - 1916
Edward Drinker Cope
1840 - 1897
Sam Loyd
1841 - 1911
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
1844 - 1934
Anna Lea Merritt
1844 - 1930
Joseph McKenna
1843 - 1926
William Elliot Griffis
1843 - 1928
John Gregory Bourke
1843 - 1896
Caspar René Gregory
1846 - 1917
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson
1842 - 1932
William Pepper
1843 - 1898
Theophilus Van Kannel
1841 - 1919
Albert Woolson
1847 - 1956
Emily Sartain
1841 - 1927
Henry R. Towne
1844 - 1924
Harrison Allen
1841 - 1897
Henry H. Bingham
1841 - 1912
George Henry Horn
1840 - 1897
Richard Theodore Greener
1844 - 1922
William M. Bunn
1842 - 1923
Hamilton Disston
1844 - 1896
James Wolcott Wadsworth
1846 - 1926
John G. Johnson
1840 - 1917
Robert Adams Jr.
1849 - 1906
Peter Conover Hains
1840 - 1921
Charles B. Clark
1844 - 1891
Jim Devlin
1849 - 1883
Sarah Paxton Ball Dodson
1847 - 1906
Edward Julius Berwind
1848 - 1936
Levi Meyerle
1849 - 1921
Horatio C Wood Jr.
1841 - 1920
Caroline Still Anderson
1848 - 1919
Doug Allison
1846 - 1916
Louis Adolphus Duhring
1845 - 1913
Richard Alsop Wise
1843 - 1900
George Berrell
1849 - 1933
John I. Beggs
1847 - 1925
Alexander Montgomery Thackara
1848 - 1937
Joel Cook
1842 - 1910
Ned Cuthbert
1845 - 1905
Alfred P. Boller
1840 - 1912
L. C. Hughes
1842 - 1915
Ida Waugh
1846 - 1919
Joseph Jorgensen
1844 - 1888
Rudolph Hering
1847 - 1923
Maria Beasley
Born 1847
James R. Young (Pennsylvania politician)
1847 - 1924
William Candidus
1840 - 1910
William Henry Lippincott
1849 - 1920
Henry Singlewood Bisbing
1849 - 1919
Charles Mitchell Thomas
1846 - 1908
Cherokee Fisher
1844 - 1912
R. H. Robertson
1849 - 1919
Thomas Allibone Janvier
1849 - 1913
Stephen Parrish
1846 - 1938
Stephen William White
1840 - 1914
John Rogers (baseball)
1844 - 1910
Charles Stockton
1845 - 1924
Samuel Leeds Allen
1841 - 1918
Rebecca Cole
1846 - 1922
Sarah Tyson Hallowell
1846 - 1924
Edward Hornor Coates
1846 - 1921
A. G. Heaton
1844 - 1930
Wharton Barker
1846 - 1921
Henry Brainerd McClellan
1840 - 1904
Caspar F. Goodrich
1847 - 1925
Charles Burleigh Purvis
1842 - 1929
William Sartain
1843 - 1924
Charles Custis Harrison
1844 - 1929
Frederick J. Kimball
1844 - 1903
E. B. Bensell
1842 - 1894
Frank Knox Morton Rehn
1848 - 1914
Harry Schafer
1846 - 1935
Ignatius Frederick Horstmann
1840 - 1908
Lewis M. Haupt
1844 - 1937
Robert Maitland O'Reilly
1845 - 1912
Dick McBride
1847 - 1916
R. Heber Newton
1840 - 1914
Thomas Messinger Drown
1842 - 1904
George Bethune Adams
1845 - 1911
George Bechtel
1848 - 1921
Catherine Ann Janvier
1841 - 1922
Thomas Bigelow Craig
1849 - 1924
Joseph P. Remington
1847 - 1918
Charles Lewis Fussell
1840 - 1909
Albert T. Morgan
1842 - 1922
Milne Ramsey
1847 - 1915
Washington Harrison Donaldson
1840 - 1875
Aubertine Woodward Moore
1841 - 1929
James McCrea
1848 - 1913
Henry Armitt Brown
1844 - 1878
Thomas Cripps
1840 - 1906
Samuel R. Scottron
1841 - 1908
Mike McGeary
1847 - 1916
Henry Cadwalader Chapman
1845 - 1909
William Henry Harrison Benyaurd
1841 - 1900
John M. Vanderslice
1846 - 1915
William Wilson (Medal of Honor)
1847 - 1895
Count Sensenderfer
1847 - 1903
John W. Comfort
1844 - 1893
Hugh Purvis
1843 - 1922
John P. Young
1849 - 1921
Art Allison
1849 - 1916
Frederick James (artist)
1845 - 1907
Richard Conner
1843 - 1923
Sam Field
1848 - 1904
Emma Garrett
1840 - 1893
John McMullin
1849 - 1881
Tryon Reakirt
1844 - 1871
George W. Cutter
Born 1849
Philip Fishbourne Wharton
1841 - 1880
Richard Longstreet Tea
1840 - 1911
John Radcliff
1848 - 1911
Samuel Howell Ashbridge
1848 - 1906
Charles L. Thomas (Medal of Honor, 1865)
1843 - 1923
Andrew J. Weaher
1842 - 1920
Moses Hampton Todd
1845 - 1935
John C. Hunterson
1841 - 1927
Sylvester Bonnaffon Jr.
1844 - 1922
George N. Galloway
1841 - 1904
Edward L. Gilligan
1843 - 1922
Joseph T. Jones
1842 - 1916
Anna Lukens
1844 - 1917
Pete Donnelly (baseball)
1849 - 1890
Minnie Dessau Louis
1841 - 1922
William Allen (soldier)
1845 - 1882
J. Edward Addicks
1841 - 1919
Isaac Sapp
1844 - 1913
Washington Fulmer
1840 - 1907
Cecil Clay
1842 - 1903
John Boake
1841 - 1912
George Snyder (baseball)
1848 - 1905
Samuel Ovenshine
1843 - 1932
John Greenig
1848 - 1913
John Galloway (Medal of Honor)
1843 - 1904
J. H. Schively
1848 - 1934
Charles James Barclay (U.S. Navy officer)
Born 1843
William H. Paul
1844 - 1911
Henry Brutsche
1846 - 1880
Charles H. Clausen
1842 - 1922
John B. Van Meter
1842 - 1930
John E. Clopp
1845 - 1866
Charles E. Colahan
1849 - 1904
Joseph Fisher (soldier)
1843 - 1903
Allan C. Kelton
1846 - 1928
Georgiana Klingle Holmes
1841 - 1940
John B. Fassett
1843 - 1905
Mase Graffen
1845 - 1883
Albert Magnin
1846 - 1906
Kitty Blanchard
1847 - 1911
Winfield S. Braddock
1848 - 1920