41.7866° N, 71.5578° W
PROVIDENCE
Most Famous People Born in Providence, United States
- Notable people
- 736
- Peak decade
- 1940s
- Median birth year
- 1927
- Most distinctive
- Bank 5.8×
Providence's Bank bench is what's left of the old Rhode Island mercantile and textile fortunes that built Federal Hill and the Brown family empire, with a Lawyer class drawn from the same patrician pipeline. The Baseball count reaches back to the Providence Grays of the 1880s, while a modern RISD-and-Brown creative vein runs through the Music and Screenwriter lines — Damien Chazelle and a thick seam of film composers.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Providence during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 86 notable births.
What Providence Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Politician is Providence's biggest profession — 16% of all notables (116).
Providence over-indexes on bank — 5.8× the global rate.
Providence under-produces football — only 0.3× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Providence's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Politics & Law
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Music
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1800s Clear ×
Sarah Helen Whitman
1803 - 1878
John Russell Bartlett
1805 - 1886
John H. Clifford
1809 - 1876
William W. Hoppin
1807 - 1880
Christopher Robinson (Rhode Island)
1806 - 1889
Emery D. Potter
1804 - 1896
William Sprague (Michigan)
1809 - 1868
Thomas Wilson Dorr
1805 - 1854
Elizabeth Buffum Chace
1806 - 1899
Eliza Grew Jones
1803 - 1838
Albert Gorton Greene
1802 - 1868
Edwards Amasa Park
1808 - 1900
George Burgess (bishop)
1809 - 1866
Frederick William Thomas (writer)
1806 - 1866
Thomas M. Burgess
1806 - 1856
John Power Knowles
1808 - 1887
Albert Martin (soldier)
1808 - 1836
Edward P. Knowles
1805 - 1881
Samuel Ames (jurist)
1806 - 1865