1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [36]
Eakins, Thomas (1844–1916) This Philadelphia-based painter produced portraits with psychological penetration worthy of a great novelist. In these works, and in depictions of such outdoor sports as swimming and boating, he brought the realist style to its greatest height of expression.
Earhart, Amelia (1897–1937) Earhart served as a military nurse during World War I and as a social worker after the war. In 1920–1921, she defied her family by learning to fly and in 1928—as a passenger—was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She piloted a plane solo across that ocean on May 20–21, 1932, setting a record time of 14 hours 56 minutes. Celebrated worldwide, she flew solo from Hawaii to California in 1935, the first aviator to complete that route successfully. In 1937, with navigator Fred Noonan, she set out on a round-the-world flight, only to vanish in the central Pacific. No trace of her, Noonan, or their Lockheed Electra has ever been found.
Eastman, George (1854–1932) In 1880 Eastman founded the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company to manufacture dry photographic plates of his own invention. This improvement over the clumsy wet plate system was followed in 1888 by the introduction of what he called the Kodak—two nonsense syllables Eastman thought mimicked the sound of the camera’s shutter—which was a simple box camera anyone could use. Eastman’s advertising slogan said it all—“You press the button, we do the rest”—and photography for the masses was born.
Eastman, Max (1883–1969) A philosophy professor at Columbia University, Eastman edited The Masses, a radical political and literary journal whose editors were tried twice in 1918 for opposing America’s entry into World War I. After the war, Eastman edited The Liberator, another popular radical magazine, then traveled to the Soviet Union in 1922 to see firsthand the effects of the Bolshevik Revolution. Appalled by what he believed was a betrayal of the Communist ideal, he wrote a series of anti-Soviet books, and in 1941 became a roving editor for The Reader’s Digest, the only mainstream periodical he ever worked for.
Ebbers, Bernard (1941– ) Bernard “Bernie” Ebbers was born in Canada to the family of a traveling salesman. He started in business as the operator of motels in Mississippi and in 1983 invested with others in the newly formed Long Distance Discount Services, Inc (LDDS). Named CEO in 1985, he presided over the acquisition of more than 60 other independent telecommunications firms to create WorldCom in 1995. The explosive expansion of WorldCom attracted many investors, but in 2005 Ebbers was convicted of fraud and conspiracy for spectacularly overstating the financially strapped company’s earnings—at a cost to investors of $180 billion. Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years.
Eckert, J. Presper (1919–1995) With his University of Pennsylvania professor, John W. Mauchly, Eckert created, in 1946, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first all-electronic (not electromechanical) digital computer. Commissioned by the U.S. government, it was used primarily for military applications and contained, in rudimentary form, all of the circuitry employed in modern computers.
Eddy, Mary Baker (1821–1910) Raised in the Congregational church, Eddy suffered from chronic, debilitating disease until 1866, when she claimed to have been suddenly healed as a result of reading the New Testament. This inspired her to create a new religion, Christian Science, in which spiritual faith is linked to physical healing. The religion grew rapidly and now has about 2,500 congregations in 70 countries.
Edison, Thomas