James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was a political theorist, American statesman and the fourth President of the United States (1809-17). Hailed as the “Father of the Constitution,” Madison wrote the first drafts of the U.S. Constitution, co-wrote The Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, and sponsored the Bill of Rights. He established the Democratic-Republican Party with President Thomas Jefferson, and served as Jefferson’s Secretary of State (1801-09). As Secretary of State, Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nation’s size. As President, he led the United States into the War of 1812; this endeavor was an administrative morass, as the U.S. had neither a strong army nor financial system. As a result, Madison afterward supported a stronger national government and a strong military, as well as the national bank.
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States (1829-1837). He was born in the Waxhaws region between North Carolina and South Carolina. A lawyer and a landowner, he owned hundreds of slaves who worked on the Hermitage Plantation. Jackson became a national war hero after defeating the British in New Orleans during the War of 1812. In response to conflict with the Seminole in Spanish Florida, he invaded the territory in 1818. This led directly to the First Seminole War and the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, which formally transferred Florida from Spain to the United States. Known as the “people’s president,” Jackson destroyed the Second Bank of the United States, founded the Democratic Party and supported individual liberty. He is also known for having signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which resulted in the forced migration of Native Americans in the South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
Billy the Kid, also known as William H. Bonney, was born William Henry McCarty Jr. (November 23, 1859 – July 14, 1881). He was an American frontier gunfighter, thief and murderer who participated in New Mexico’s Lincoln County War. Bonney is known to have killed eight men. After murdering a blacksmith during an altercation in 1877, Bonney became a wanted man in Arizona Territory and joined a group of cattle rustlers in New Mexico. He took part in the Lincoln County War and joined the Regulators, making him a well-known outlaw in the region. After one of many prison escapes, Bonney was ultimately shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in 1881. Over the next several decades, legends grew that Bonney had not died that night, and a number of men claimed to be him.
Jesse James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, guerrilla, gang leader, bank robber, train robber and murderer from the state of Missouri. He was the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang, who were Confederate guerrillas or bushwhackers during the Civil War. They were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers, including the Centralia Massacre. After the war, as members of various gangs of outlaws, they robbed banks, stagecoaches and trains. The James brothers were most active as members of their own gang from about 1866 until 1876. In 1882, Jesse James was killed by a member of his own gang who hoped to collect a reward. Already a celebrity when he was alive, James became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death.
Frederick Douglass (c. February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement from Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Douglass wrote several autobiographies in which he described his experiences as a slave and promoted the cause of abolition. After the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner against slavery. Douglass also actively supported women’s suffrage, and held several public offices. In 1872, without his approval, Douglass became the first African-American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket. Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all peoples, whether black, female, Native American or recent immigrant.
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, artist and writer. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” became anthems for the American civil rights and anti-war movements. Dylan’s songs defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. His recording career, spanning 50 years, has explored the traditions in American song, including folk, blues, country and rock and roll. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards and harmonica. He has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time; he has received numerous awards including Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy Award. Dylan was born on May 24, 1941.
P.S. Over the past five years, I’m not sure how I ended up making 8-bit versions of 944 other random characters before I got around to making Bob Dylan. Strange. Though perhaps not as strange as a disheveled 68-year-old Bob Dylan being escorted from a New Jersey shore community by police. Merry Christmas!
Sojourner Truth (born Isabella “Bell” Baumfree) was an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son, in 1828 she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843. Her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title “Ain’t I a Woman?” During the Civil War, Truth helped recruit black troops for the Union Army; after the war, she tried unsuccessfully to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves. She died on November 26, 1883 at the age of 86.
Jane Addams was a pioneering American social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women’s suffrage and world peace. In an era when presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson identified themselves as reformers and social activists, Addams was one of the most prominent reformers of the Progressive Era. She campaigned for better social conditions and led investigations into child welfare, local public health and education. She introduced the idea of the settlement house to the United States, co-founding Hull House in 1889. In 1920, she co-founded the ACLU. In 1931, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the U.S. Addams was born on September 6, 1860 and died on May 21, 1935.
Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter, singer and one of the pivotal and most influential figures in jazz music. Coming to prominence in the 1920s, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was an influential singer, perhaps most famous for “What a Wonderful World.” Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong’s influence extends well beyond jazz music. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers whose skin color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. An active musician for over 50 years, he recorded numerous albums, including two with Ella Fitzgerald. Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 and died on July 6, 1971.
Note: Interestingly, Louis Armstrong has a major tennis stadium named in his honor. Louis Armstrong Stadium, located in New York City’s Flushing Meadows Corona Park, is one of the U.S. Open venues. Armstrong lived nearby until his death. This year’s U.S. Open begins on August 31.
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States (1913-1921) and leader of the Progressive Movement. To date the only U.S. President to have held a Ph.D., he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910. Wilson induced a conservative Democratic Congress to pass a progressive legislative agenda, unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933. This included the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act and an income tax. Wilson’s second term was dominated by American entry into World War I. For his sponsorship of the League of Nations, Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize. Wilson has consistently been ranked by scholars and the public as one of the top 10 presidents. He was born on this day in 1856 and died on February 3, 1924.
Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist who first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916. She made large-format paintings of enlarged blossoms, presenting them close up as if seen through a magnifying lens, and New York buildings, most of which date from the same decade. O’Keeffe has been recognized as the mother of American modernism. In the 1920s, she turned to working more representationally in an effort to move her critics away from Freudian interpretations. While her earlier work had been mostly abstract, O’Keeffe became best known for sensual, floral works that evoke veiled representations of female genitalia. She rejected feminists who celebrated her as the originator of “female iconography.” O’Keeffe was born on this day in 1887.
P.S. This 8-bit version of Georgia O’Keeffe was inspired by her flower paintings and the many nude portraits her husband, famous photographer Alfred Stieglitz, took of her. I think the three colorful flowers I drew ended up kind of looking like Wonder Woman-themed underwear or maybe a boxing championship title belt.
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as “America’s Sweetheart.” She was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford won two Academy Awards in her lifetime, one for Coquette (1929) and one in 1975. She was born on this day in 1892.
Ruth Elizabeth “Bette” Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in cinema history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was reputed for her performances in a range of film genres. Davis was the first person to secure 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, winning two. Some of her most celebrated films include All About Eve (1950), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Now, Voyager (1942). Davis was born on April 5, 1908 and died on October 6, 1989.
Charles Manson is an American criminal and musician who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the 1969 murders of Hollywood starlet Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca carried out by members of the group at his instruction. Manson believed the murders would help precipitate an impending apocalyptic race war he called “Helter Skelter.” Before the murders, he was a singer-songwriter on the fringe of the Los Angeles music industry, chiefly through a chance association with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Manson is serving life imprisonment at Corcoran State Prison in California. Now 79 years old, he was born on this day in 1934.
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States (1869-1877) following his successful role as a general in the second half of the Civil War. Under Grant, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military, ending with the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. As president, Grant led the Radical Republicans in their effort to eliminate all vestiges of Confederate nationalism and slavery. Upset over uncontrolled violence in the South and wanting to protect African-American citizenship, Grant effectively destroyed the Ku Klux Klan in 1871. Grant’s two terms as president stabilized the nation after the Civil War and during the turbulent Reconstruction Era that followed. Historians until recently have rated Grant’s presidency poorly, but his reputation has significantly improved because of greater appreciation for his foreign policy and civil rights achievements. His presidential accomplishments include avoiding war with Britain and Spain, the Fifteenth Amendment, prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan, enforcement of voting rights and his Native American Peace Policy.
Robert E. Lee was an American career military officer best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War. When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his personal desire for the country to remain intact and despite the fact that President Abraham Lincoln had offered Lee command of a Union army. During the Civil War, Lee originally served as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. He soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning numerous battles against far superior Union armies. Lee would ultimately surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox in 1865. Other Confederate forces swiftly capitulated after Lee’s surrender. Lee became a great Southern hero of the Civil War and remains one of the most revered, iconic figures of American military leadership. He died on October 12, 1870.
Jackie Robinson was an American baseball player who became the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. As the first MLB team to play a black man since the 1880s, the Dodgers ended racial segregation that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades. Robinson’s character and talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement. Over 10 seasons, Robinson played in six World Series, winning one in 1955. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games (1949-1954), was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949.
Note: In 1997, Major League Baseball “universally” retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams; he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored. This is pixel art character #642.
Italian explorer and colonizer Christopher Columbus is today’s pixel art character, in honor of his demise on May 20, 1506. If we were to apply ethical standards to his life’s work, Columbus should be wanted for grand theft of the lands populated by the indigenous peoples; for initiating the systematic genocide of 98% of the original Americans; and for crimes against humanity, including the rape, torture, mutilation and enslavement of American Indians.
I previously wrote about the great lie of Columbus when I posted my Sitting Bull pixel art on Columbus Day in 2011. Even though Columbus was a wretched human being and wrong about everything, he was lucky enough to survive his catastrophic miscalculations and find uncharted land before his crews starved to death. No portrait of Columbus drawn or painted from life is known to exist, but I prefer to imagine him with a stupid hat.
Charlie Chaplin was a British comic actor and filmmaker who rose to fame in the silent era. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona “the Tramp.” A legendary figure in film history, Chaplin’s career spanned more than 75 years, from a child in the Victorian era to close to his death at the age of 88. Raised in London, his childhood was defined by poverty and hardship. At 19, Chaplin was signed to the prestigious Fred Karno company, which took him to America. By 1918, he was one of the most famous men in the world. In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, giving him complete control over his films, which included The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). He was born on this day in 1889.
Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He helped develop many influential devices, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera and the electric light bulb. However, to quote the hilarious Nikola Tesla comic by The Oatmeal, “Edison did not invent the light bulb. Edison simply figured out how to sell the light bulb. Edison was not a geek; he was a CEO.” And he was a terrible human being. For example, as a developer of direct current (DC) electricity, Edison put live “dogs and cats on display and publicly electrocuted them using Tesla’s alternating current (AC). His goal was to publicly smear Tesla’s AC and convince the public that it was too dangerous for home use. The only thing Edison truly pioneered was douchebaggery.” Edison was born on this day in 1847.
I will also reiterate what I wrote for my 8-bit Nikola Tesla character last year. I love this Funny or Die episode about Tesla and the evil Thomas Edison: “This is awful. I am inventing electricity and you look like an asshole.”
Christopher Columbus – No. 621
Italian explorer and colonizer Christopher Columbus is today’s pixel art character, in honor of his demise on May 20, 1506. If we were to apply ethical standards to his life’s work, Columbus should be wanted for grand theft of the lands populated by the indigenous peoples; for initiating the systematic genocide of 98% of the original Americans; and for crimes against humanity, including the rape, torture, mutilation and enslavement of American Indians.
I previously wrote about the great lie of Columbus when I posted my Sitting Bull pixel art on Columbus Day in 2011. Even though Columbus was a wretched human being and wrong about everything, he was lucky enough to survive his catastrophic miscalculations and find uncharted land before his crews starved to death. No portrait of Columbus drawn or painted from life is known to exist, but I prefer to imagine him with a stupid hat.