People we keep on the record.
Verbatim lines, dated, sourced, and linked to the original. Historical and public-domain first — every entry has a citation, and any reader can challenge one.
Abraham Lincoln
16th President of the United States. Led the Union through the Civil War.
Read the lines →Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd President. Led the United States through the Great Depression and most of World War II.
Read the lines →Marcus Aurelius
Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher.
Read the lines →Frederick Douglass
Abolitionist, orator, and writer. Escaped slavery to become one of the most powerful voices in 19th-century American politics.
Read the lines →John F. Kennedy
35th President of the United States.
Read the lines →Sojourner Truth
Abolitionist and women's rights advocate. Born into slavery in New York.
Read the lines →Susan B. Anthony
Suffragist and social reformer. Tried in 1873 for voting illegally.
Read the lines →Theodore Roosevelt
26th President. Naturalist, soldier, reformer.
Read the lines →Every figure entry uses the exact words as reported by a citable source. We don't paraphrase, condense, or invent. If an entry is wrong or there's a better source, open the figure's page and use the correction form — every change is logged in public.