1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [92]
Moses, Grandma (1860–1961) Anna Mary Robertson Moses was popularly known as “Grandma Moses” because of her long life. She was born in rural New York and farmed there and in Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She began painting the landscapes familiar to her, partly in imitation of Currier & Ives prints, but also in a manner true to her charmingly naïve vision. A collector exhibited her work in New York City in 1939–1940, and it met with instant national acclaim. She became the most celebrated of American folk artists.
Moses, Robert (1888–1981) Moses was an urban planning commissioner of boundless ambition, who created public works that profoundly transformed the cityscape of New York and served as a model—and sometimes a cautionary example—for the nation as a whole. Moses was wholly or partly responsible for some 35 new highways, a dozen bridges, many city parks, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Shea Stadium, numerous housing projects, two hydroelectric dams, and the entire 1964 New York World’s Fair. He was also a moving force behind the construction of the United Nations headquarters buildings in New York. Widely admired, Moses was also condemned as a megalomaniacal empire builder, who did not scruple at tearing down buildings of historical importance and even entire neighborhoods.
Mott, Lucretia (1793–1880) Born Lucretia Coffin in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Mott was a liberal reformer active in the abolition movement. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she founded the American Equal Rights Association and other activities of the first organized women’s rights movement in the country.
Mudd, Samuel (1833–1883) Mudd was a Maryland physician and Confederate sympathizer who met John Wilkes Booth through a mutual acquaintance. After Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln and made his escape, he stopped at Mudd’s home around four o’clock in the morning on April 15 to seek the doctor’s aid in setting his leg, which he had broken when he leaped from the presidential box to the stage of Ford’s Theatre after shooting the president. Mudd was subsequently convicted of conspiracy to murder Lincoln. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he was incarcerated at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, some 70 miles west of Key West, Florida. He protested innocence of the conspiracy and claimed that he had merely aided an injured man. Mudd’s heroic medical work during a yellow fever outbreak at the fort in 1867 earned him a presidential pardon in 1869.
Muhammad, Elijah (1897–1975) Muhammad was born Elijah Poole in Georgia and took his Muslim name after he became assistant minister to Wallace D. Fard, founder of the Nation of Islam, popularly called the Black Muslims. Elijah Muhammad became head of the Muslims after Fard disappeared in 1934. Under his leadership, the Black Muslims expanded into a major black nationalist movement.
Muir, John (1838–1914) Muir was born in Scotland and immigrated to the United States in 1849. He embarked on a career as an inventor, but, after suffering an industrial accident in 1867, turned to the natural world. He wrote eloquently of the beauties of North America and of the vital importance of the wilderness, especially in modern life. He became a passionate advocate of forest conservation. A charismatic organizer, he was in large part responsible for the creation of California’s Sequoia and Yosemite national parks.
Murrow, Edward R. (1908–1965) Murrow was a radio and television broadcaster-journalist, whose radio reports of key European events preceding World War II and of World War II itself (especially the Battle of Britain) were not only broadcasting landmarks, but helped shape America’s attitude toward the Axis and