Humanities Romanticism/Realism

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American transcendentalist who was against slavery and stressed self-reliance, optimism, self-improvement, self-confidence, and freedom. He was a prime example of a transcendentalist and helped further the movement.

Henry David Thoreau

American transcendentalist who was against a government that supported slavery. He wrote down his beliefs in Walden. He started the movement of civil-disobedience when he refused to pay the toll-tax to support him Mexican War.

Walt Whitman

American poet and transcendentalist who was famous for his beliefs on nature, as demonstrated in his book, Leaves of Grass. He was therefore an important part for the buildup of American literature and breaking the traditional rhyme method in writing poetry.

Louis Pasteur

A French chemist, this man discovered that heat could kill bacteria that otherwise spoiled liquids including milk, wine, and beer.

L.J.M Daquerre

a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography (romanticism)

Herman Melville

American writer whose experiences at sea provided the factual basis of Moby-Dick (1851), considered among the greatest American novels

Charles Baudelaire

a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe

Emily Dickinson

Reclusive New England poet who wrote about love, death, and immortality

Johann von Goethe

This man is considered the greatest of German writers who wrote great works of literature and drama as well as works that covered topics as diverse as theology and science. His greatest literary works include Faust and Sorrows of Young Werther.

Emily Brontë

English poet and novelist who wrote Wuthering Heights, a powerful tale of passion and revenge set on the Yorkshire moors.

William Blake

The Chimney Sweeper; He was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, he is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age)

Robert Louis Stevenson

was a Scottish essayist, poet, and author of fiction and travel books, best known for his works Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (neo-romantic)

Eadweard Muybridge

United States motion-picture pioneer remembered for his pictures of running horses taken with a series of still cameras (1830-1904)

Leo Tolstoy

wrote Anna Karenina, War and Peace; Russian writer, realistic fiction