1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [123]
Straus, Nathan (1848–1931) With his brother Isidor, Straus co-owned the great R. H. Macy department store in New York City from 1896. During the 1890s, Straus also began his philanthropic work, giving away food and coal to poor New Yorkers and supplying pasteurized milk to children in 36 American cities. By 1920, he had founded nearly 300 milk-distribution depots in the United States and abroad. In 1909, Straus also financed the first tuberculosis “preventorium” for children in Lakewood, New Jersey.
Straus, Oscar S. (1850–1926) Straus was born in Germany. He was the brother of department store owners Isidor and Nathan Straus. When President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him secretary of commerce and labor, he became the first Jewish member of a U.S. Cabinet. Straus also served as U.S. emissary to the Ottoman Empire (1887–1889, 1898–1900, 1909–1910) and was an adviser to President Woodrow Wilson.
Strauss, Levi (1829–1902) Born in Bavaria (as Löb Strauss), Levi Strauss immigrated to New York City with his family in 1847. With his brothers, he became a dry goods merchant and moved to booming San Francisco in 1853. In response to the need of gold prospectors for more durable trousers, Strauss developed denim overalls. In 1872, he acted on the suggestion of Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada tailor, to use metal rivets to reinforce pants at vulnerable points of strain. Strauss and Davis patented this new type of trousers on May 20, 1873, and Levi’s jeans were born. They would become an article of clothing symbolic of American popular culture through many generations.
Stuart, Gilbert (1755–1828) Born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, Stuart (born Stewart) became internationally recognized not only as the finest portrait painter of the new American republic but also its most distinctive, having created a style that drew on English precedents but that was also uniquely American. Of his more than 1,000 portraits his most famous is the unfinished “Atheneum Head,” the 1796 portrait of George Washington, which was for generations endlessly reproduced for display in classrooms and other public places.
Stuyvesant, Peter (1592–1672) Irascible and unyielding, Stuyvesant became governor of New Netherland—the Dutch New World colony—in 1647 and tried in vain to rally the colonists to resist the British attempt to conquer the colony. Without the necessary support of his people, he was forced to surrender to the British—who renamed New Netherland New York—and he retired to his Manhattan farm, the Bouwerie (the Bowery) at the edge of New Amsterdam (which was renamed New York as well).
Sullivan, Ed (1901–1974) Sullivan was a Broadway newspaper columnist who became a television pioneer with a variety program called “The Toast of the Town” (1948–1955). This was renamed in 1955 “The Ed Sullivan Show” and from 1955 to 1971, it was a fixture of Sunday evening programming, bringing into the nation’s living rooms a wide variety of popular entertainment. Because Sullivan seemed to have an unerring instinct for “the next big thing,” the show became an American trendsetter and tastemaker.
Sullivan, John L. (1858–1918) On February 7, 1882, boxer Sullivan defeated Paddy Ryan at Mississippi City, Mississippi, winning the world heavyweight boxing championship and thereby beginning his rise to becoming a national sports hero, America’s first great sporting celebrity.
Sullivan, Louis (1856–1924) Sullivan was a brilliant late 19th century architect generally regarded as the father of modern architecture and the first great architect to tackle the skyscraper. His leading principle was to ensure that the form of a structure followed its function and was organic to the building, rather than a matter of mere decoration. His early masterpieces were produced in partnership with the Dankmar Adler and include the Auditorium Building, Chicago (1866–1889) and the Wainwright Building, St. Louis (1890–1891). Frank Lloyd Wright was Sullivan’s apprentice.
Sulzberger, Arthur Ochs (1926– )