America's first great
Neil Freeman, 2006
hyperlinked list
An exploration of a tired, worn-out trope. List made with with web searches for "America's First Great", "First Great American" and related terms.
But great men:- the word is injurious. Is there caste? Is there fate? What becomes of the promise to virtue?
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Uses of Great Men
Actor
Edwin Forrest (1806-1872)
Architect (modern)
Louis Sullivan (1856-1924)
Botanist
John Bartram (1699-1777)
Businessman
P.T. Barnum (1810-1891)
Doctor
William Beaumont (1789-1853)
Director
DW Griffith (1875-1948)
Engineer
James Buchanan Eads (1820-1887)
Explorer
John Ledyard (1752-1789)
General/Warrior
George Washington (1732-1799)
Inventor
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Journalist
Ida Tarbell (1857-1944)
Philosopher
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Mathematician
James Joseph Sylvester (1814-1897)
Novelist
Washington Irving (1783-1859)
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Philanthropist
Peter Cooper (1791-1883)
Playwright
Edward Sheldon (1883-1946)
Sculptor
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)
Songwriter
Stephen Foster (1826-1864)
Theologian
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1756)
Urban Planner
Daniel Burnham (1846-1912)