Abraham Lincoln (b.Kentucky, 1809–65), 16th president of the US, is the outstanding figure in Illinois history, having lived and built his political career in the state between 1830 and 1861. The only Illinois native to be elected president is Ronald Reagan (b.1911), who left the state after graduating from Eureka College to pursue his film and political careers in California. Ulysses S. Grant (b.Ohio, 1822–85), the nation's 18th president, lived in Galena on the eve of the Civil War. Adlai E. Stevenson (b.Kentucky, 1835–1914), founder of a political dynasty, served as US vice president from 1893 to 1897, but was defeated for the same office in 1900. His grandson, also named Adlai E. Stevenson (b.California, 1900–65), served as governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953, was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, and ended his career as US ambassador to the United Nations. Charles Gates Dawes (b.Ohio, 1865–1951), a Chicago financier, served as vice president from 1925 to 1929 and shared the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize for the Dawes Plan to reorganize German finances. William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925), a leader of the free-silver and Populist movements, was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1896, 1900, and 1908.
US Supreme Court justices associated with Illinois include David Davis (b.Maryland, 1815–86); John M. Harlan (1899–1971); Chicago-born Arthur Goldberg (1908–90), who also served as secretary of labor and succeeded Stevenson as UN ambassador; Harry A. Blackmun (1908–97); and John Paul Stevens (b.1920). Melville Fuller (b.Maine, 1833–1910) served as chief justice from 1888 to 1910.
Many other politicians who played important roles on the national scene drew their support from the people of Illinois. They include Stephen Douglas (b.Vermont, 1813–61), senator from 1847 to 1861, Democratic Party leader, 1860 presidential candidate, but equally famous as Lincoln's opponent in a series of debates on slavery in 1858; Lyman Trumbull (b.Connecticut, 1813–96), senator from 1855 to 1873, who helped secure passage of the 13th and 14th amendments to the US Constitution; Joseph "Uncle Joe" Cannon (b.North Carolina, 1836–1926), Republican congressman from Danville for half a century and autocratic speaker of the House from 1903 to 1911; Henry Rainey (1860–1934), Democratic speaker of the House during 1933–34, Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896–1969), senator and colorful Republican leader during the 1950s and 1960s; Charles H. Percy (b.Florida, 1919), Republican senator from 1967 to 1985; John B. Anderson (b.1922), Republican congressman for 20 years and an independent presidential candidate in 1980; and Robert H. Michel (b.1923), House Republican leader in the 1980s.
Among noteworthy governors of the state, in addition to Stevenson, were Richard Yates (b.Kentucky, 1815–73), who maintained Illinois's loyalty to the Union during the Civil War; John Peter Altgeld (b.Germany, 1847–1902), governor from 1893 to 1897; and Republican-Progressive leader Frank Lowden (b.Minnesota, 1861–1943). Richard J. Daley (1902–76) was Democratic boss and mayor of Chicago from 1955 to 1976. Jane Byrne (b.1934), a Daley protégé, became mayor in 1979; she was succeeded in 1983 by Harold Washington (1922–87), the city's first black mayor. Richard Michael Daley (b.1942), son of Richard Daley, also became mayor.
Phyllis Schlafly (b.Missouri, 1924) of Alton became nationally known as an antifeminist conservative crusader during the 1970s. An outstanding Illinoisan was Jane Addams (1860–1935), founder of Hull House (1889), author, reformer, prohibitionist, feminist, and tireless worker for world peace; in 1931, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize. Winners of the Nobel Prize in physics include Albert Michelson (b.Germany, 1852–1931), Robert Millikan (1868–1953), Arthur Holly Compton (b.Ohio, 1892–1962), Enrico Fermi (b.Italy, 1901–54), John Bardeen (b.Wisconsin, 1908–91), John R. Schrieffer (b.1931), and James W. Cronin (b.1931). Chemistry prizes went to Robert Mulliken (b.Massachusetts, 1896–1986), Wendell Stanley (b.Indiana, 1904–71), Willard Libby (b.Colorado, 1908–80), and Stanford Moore (1913–82). Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine were won by Charles Huggins (b.Canada, 1901–97), George Beadle (b.Nebraska 1903–89), and Robert W. Holley (1922–93). A Nobel award in literature went to Saul Bellow (b.Canada, 1915), and the economics prize was given to Milton Friedman (b.New York, 1912), leader of the so-called Chicago school of economists, and to Theodore Schultz (b.South Dakota, 1902–98) in 1979.
Some of the most influential Illinoisans have been religious leaders; many of them also exercised social and political influence. Notable are Methodist circuit rider Peter Cartwright (b.Virginia, 1785–1872); Dwight Moody (b.Massachusetts, 1837–99), leading force in the National Women's Christian Temperance Union and the feminist cause; Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (b.Italy, 1850–1917), the first American to be canonized; Bishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979), influential spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church; Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole, b.Georgia, 1897–1975), leader of the Black Muslim movement; and Jesse Jackson (b.North Carolina, 1941), civil rights leader and one of the most prominent black spokesmen of the 1980s and 1990s.
Outstanding business and professional leaders who lived in Illinois include John Deere (b.Vermont, 1804–86), industrialist and inventor of the steel plow; Cyrus Hall McCormick (b.Virginia, 1809–84), inventor of the reaping machine; Nathan Davis (1817–1904), the "father of the American Medical Association"; railroad car inventor George Pullman (b.New York 1831–97); meat-packer Philip Armour (b.New York, 1832–1901); merchant Marshall Field (b.Massachusetts, 1834–1906); merchant Aaron Montgomery Ward (b.New Jersey, 1843–1913); sporting-goods manufacturer Albert G. Spalding (1850–1915); breakfast-food manufacturer Charles W. Post (1854–1911); William Rainey Harper (b.Ohio, 1856–1906), first president of the University of Chicago; lawyer Clarence Darrow (b.Ohio, 1857–1938); public utilities magnate Samuel Insull (b.England, 1859–1938); Julius Rosenwald (1862–1932), philanthropist and executive of Sears, Roebuck; advertising executive Albert Lasker (b.Texas, 1880–1952); and Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick (1880–1955). Thomas R. Cech (b.1937) was a recipient of the 1989 Nobel prize for chemistry. Jerome Friedman (b.1930), 1990 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for physics, in Chicago. Harry M. Markowitz (b.1927) won the Nobel prize for economics in 1990. Michael Bishop (b.1936) was a recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.
Artists who worked for significant periods in Illinois (usually in Chicago) include architects William Le Baron Jenney (b.Massachusetts, 1832–1907), Dankmar Adler (b.Germany, 1844–1900), Daniel H. Burnham (b.New York, 1846–1912), John Wellborn Root (b.Georgia, 1850–91), Louis Sullivan (b.Massachusetts, 1856–1924), Frank Lloyd Wright (b.Wisconsin, 1869–1959), and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (b.Germany, 1886–1969). Important writers include humorist Finley Peter Dunne (1867–1936), creator of the fictional saloonkeeper-philosopher Mr. Dooley; and novelists Hamlin Garland (b.Wisconsin, 1860–1940), Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950), John Dos Passos (1896–1970), Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961), and James Farrell (1904–79). Poets include Harriet Monroe (1860–1936); Edgar Lee Masters (b.Kansas, 1869–1950); biographer-poet Carl Sandburg (1878–1967); Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931); Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982), also librarian of Congress and assistant secretary of state; and Gwendolyn Brooks (b.Kansas, 1917–2000), the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. Robert Butler (b.1945) was the 1993 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Performing artists connected with the state include opera stars Mary Garden (b.Scotland, 1877–1967) and Sherrill Milnes (b.1935); clarinetist Benny Goodman (1909–86); pop singers Mel Torme (1925–99) and Grace Slick (b.1939); jazz musician Miles Davis (b.1926–91); showmen Gower Champion (1921–80) and Robert Louis "Bob" Fosse (b.1927–87); comedians Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky, 1894–1974), Harvey Korman (b.1927), Bob Newhart (b.1929), and Richard Pryor (b.1940); and a long list of stage and screen stars, including Gloria Swanson (1899–1983), Ralph Bellamy (b.1904–91), Robert Young (1907–98), Karl Malden (Malden Sekulovich, b.1913), William Holden (1918–81), Jason Robards, Jr. (1922–2000), Charlton Heston (b.1922), Rock Hudson (Roy Fitzgerald, 1925–85), Donald O'Connor (b.1925), Bruce Dern (b.1936), and Raquel Welch (Raquel Tejeda, b.1942). Dominant figures in the Illinois sports world include Ernest "Ernie" Banks (b.Texas, 1931) of the Chicago Cubs; Robert "Bobby" Hull (b.Canada, 1939) of the Chicago Black Hawks; owner George Halas (1895–83) and running backs Harold Edward "Red" Grange (b.Pennsylvania, 1903–91), Gale Sayers (b.Kansas, 1943), and Walter Payton (b.Mississippi, 1954–1999) of the Chicago Bears; and collegiate football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg (b.New Jersey, 1862–1965).