For asking casual questions about History. Also see r/History or r/AskHistorians.
Who were the last living people who who had already become famous or achieved recognition in their field before the year 1900?
The only candidates I can think of are WEB Dubois (died 1963), Winston Churchill (1965), and Bertrand Russell (1970). All three of them were first published in the 1890s, and they each achieved great success by 1905 or so, but I'm not sure if you can already call them "public figures" before 1900 (except perhaps Churchill because of his prominent background).
A simpler question, then, might be "who were the last people who were unambiguously well-known in the 1800s?" But the only person I can think of off the top of my head was Mary of Teck (died 1953).
I'm looking for people aside from children - I'm sure there's someone with famous parents whose birth was a major news events in 1899 and died in 2002, but until they start making bon mots or christening ocean liners, socialities and royalty don't count.
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![r/100yearsago - [February 11, 1921] Thomas Edison punching a time clock on his 74th birthday.](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/92M-jBW7qKcy79r_G_SAk-Yu6Ajdh02Df810a3mAFTo.jpg)
Sibelius lived from 1865 to 1957 and became fairly well known around Europe in the 1890s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Sibelius
I thought I had one but, as it turns out, at his parent's insistence, Stravinsky took a detour to study law so he didn't become known for his work as a composer until sometime after 1900. He did die in 1971 so he slightly outlived Russell.
I hadn't realize Stravinsky lived so long!
Overall, I find it's a lot easier to think of long-lived people who were influential before 1910 than 1900, myself - I suppose that decade just had more lasting relevance than the 1890s.
Picasso was producing art and considered something of a prodigy in the late 1890s. His ‘Blue Period’ work was 1900-1905. He died in 1973 and was working up until his death.
This was my first thought with the question. Picasso's first paintings and career start would have been 1894, even if it was the early 20th century he owed a lot more to his success. A lot of times in art history you get this feeling he was a lot older than he was especially with a lot of his most recognizable paintings being from the 1900-1920's and not really think about the fact he would have been around to hear The Beatles or witness the moon landing on TV and was still painting.
That's crazy... for some reason I picture Picasso running around castles... not watching Woodstock on TV.
Winston Churchill first rose to international fame when he escaped from the Boers in 1899 before he entered politics. He lived until 1965.
It's pretty hard to come around Churchilll on this question.
One would have to be born before 1890 and be a public figure when the only means of mass communication was by type and then, they have to live past 1965...or effectively double their life expectancy at birth.
Churchill starting out as an aristocratic journalist who then went on to be Churchill has unparalleled advantages for the time.
I think Winston would agree the answer is him.
Life expectancy after you reached childhood wasn’t much shorter than today. It was all the childhood deaths that dragged the avg life expectancy down. If someone reached 20 they were likely to reach past retirement.
WW1 may have reduced life expectancy in that cohort by about 8 years. Churchill was quite lucky with his late Victorian birth year.
A little, but the difference in expected lifespan if you were born in 1850 and reached 20 was only 1 year lower than if you were born in 1890 (US figures in this instance: https://www.infoplease.com/us/health-statistics/life-expectancy-age-1850-2011)
Pablo Casals. 1876 - 1973. Famous cellist.
From Wikipedia:
In 1899, Casals played at The Crystal Palace in London, and later for Queen Victoria at Osborne House, her summer residence, accompanied by Ernest Walker. On 12 November, and 17 December 1899, he appeared as a soloist at Lamoureux Concerts in Paris, to great public and critical acclaim
So I'm old enough to have theoretically listened live to the same musician as Queen Victoria.
If I didn't feel old before, I certainly do now.
My husband did attend a Casals performance and took guitar lessons from Segovia.
I suspected it would be a musical prodigy of some sort.
Queen Mary (1867-1953)
Queen Elizabeth II’s paternal grandmother was Queen Mary. She was married to King George V and was the mother of Queen Elizabeth II’s father, King George VI. Queen Mary was born Mary of Teck and became queen consort when her husband ascended the throne in 1910.
Jan Smuts died in 1950. Came to fame before the boer war.
Helen Keller became fairly well known before the end of the 19th century and lived until 1968.
TIL that Helen Keller outlived Martin Luther King
She lived long enough to see Star Trek...
Oh wait
r/angryupvote
George Bernard Shaw did a fair amount of writing and publishing prior to the turn of the century, including a quite successful play (Arms and the Man) in 1894. He died in 1950.
Knut Hamsen published his first book in 1877, and his most famous novel (Hunger) in 1890. He died in 1952.
Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands in 1890, and lived until 1962.
But Sobhuza II was King of Swaziland from 1899 to his death in 1982.
The last US Civil War general died in 1938 but that's too US- centric and I would guess there are better examples from Europe or East Asia.
Similarly, Samuel James Seymour was the last surviving witness to Lincoln's assassination. He lived 1860-1956. He was on I've Got a Secret in the 50s
I need a cigarette.
I’m very impressed by how quickly they narrowed that down!
What was his name? I'll look him up.
theirs a few on this old Reddit post that I think would qualify.
That is a really neat graphic. Thanks for the link.
Russell had a similar background (scion of a dynasty as influential as the as the Spencers and the Churchills, and - originally - much richer: grandson of a Prime Minister), but was probably less well-known outside elite and academic circles by the turn of the century. Churchill's Boer War exploits really made him well known.
So you need someone who did the things they became known for as a young adult - athletes come to mind. And you need a sport that people were paying attention to in the 1890s. I'm American, so that's going to be baseball. Some candidates: Cy Young (1867-1955), Nap Lajoie (1874-1959), Honus Wagner (1874-1955), Clark Griffith (1869-1955), Connie Mack (1862-1956).
.
What about Frank Lloyd Wright? He wasn't yet nationally famous but was already a well established architect doing innovative work in 1900 and was still turning out major works at his death in 1959. (The Guggenheim Museum)
Edward Duke of Windsor was born in 1894 and was immediately in line for the throne. He died in 1972.
E. H. Shepard, the artist who illustrated Winnie the Pooh and thus created the look of the character we still recognize today, was born in 1879. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1899 and a British Institute prize in 1900, so he was already recognized as an artist by 1900. He died in 1976.
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands ascended to the throne in 1890 and lived until 1962.
Alice Roosevelt (died 1980) came very close, but didn't become famous until 1901.
So Churchill is my best guess.
Edit: Would you count child stars? Because some of them will have lived until the 1960s-80s. Elsie Leslie for example became famous in 1887, and died in 1966.
King Sobhuza II of Swaziland.
Born July 1899, because king in December when his father Ngwane V died suddenly. Reigned until his death in 1982, the longest verifiable reign in history.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth who died in 1980? She was pretty out there as a teen but I'm not sure if she was well known before Teddy became president (outside of NY social circles).
Alice was undoubtably one of the most influential socialites of the 1900s, but I'm not sure about what he public stature was in the 1890s. Her father became governor of NY in 1899 when she was 15; maybe the local press started to report on her antics at that time?
Alice was probably well known in NYC social circles, even as a teen in the late 1890s. The Roosevelts were a pretty prominent family in NYC going back many decades. Nationally, probably no one care about her until TR became president.
Charlie Chaplin was a touring stage performer as a child in the late 19th century and lived until 1977.
Pablo Picasso lived from 1881-1973
Interesting question and I've spend some 15 minutes thinking about people but the only one fitting the requirement I can think of is Nikola Tesla.
I was also thinking of Paul von Hindenburg but I doubt he was well known beyond Germany -could be wrong- before 1900. Another was Siegmund Freud but i'm not sure as well how well established he was before 1900.
Edit: Erik Satie
George Burns. 1896-1996. may have well been the last living public figure from the 1800s. He entertained the world almost to his end, and almost lived to see the year 2000!
I think you misunderstand the question. Burns wasn't famous in 1900... he was barely born.
Thomas Edison died in 1931.
Not as long lived as some of the others mentioned, but H.G. Wells published his most famous novels in the 1890s and was still alive when World War 2 ended.
How about photographer Edward Steichen (1879-1973)?
He started to receive national attention in 1988 and later became world famous: "In 1899, Steichen's photographs were exhibited in the second Philadelphia Photographic Salon." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Steichen
Mark Twain
Didn’t he die around 1910? I’m sure there’s plenty of his contemporaries who outlived him.
What is the purpose of this question?
It's just something that idly passed through my mind.
It's easier to perform ye summoning ritual if ye essential saltes are relatively fresh.
What is the purpose of Reddit?
Usually in this sub questions are trying to understand a past event or person or to contextualize something happening now with events from the past; that is, they’re about history, the questioner exists in the present trying to learn from the past. My question is what are you trying to understand about either the present or the past from this question? It’s also not really a queryable question, it’s not how this information is generally sorted; so again I ask, what is trying to be understood by asking it?
I spend a lot of time in public history and a lot of time answering questions from the public and there’s always the question someone asks and the question they are trying to ask and while sometimes they are the same often there exists a gulf between the two.