While only one native New Jerseyite, (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (1837–1908), has been elected president of the US, the state can also properly claim (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (b.Virginia, 1856–1924), who spent most of his adult life there. Cleveland left his birthplace in Caldwell as a little boy, winning his fame and two terms in the White House (1885–89, 1893–97) as a resident of New York State. After serving as president, he retired to Princeton, where he died and is buried. Wilson, a member of Princeton's class of 1879, returned to the university in 1908 as a professor and became its president in 1902. Elected governor of New Jersey in 1910, Wilson pushed through a series of sweeping reforms before entering the White House in 1913. Wilson's two presidential terms were marked by his controversial decision to declare war on Germany and his unsuccessful crusade for US membership in the League of Nations after World War I.
Two vice presidents hail from New Jersey: Aaron Burr (1756–1836) and Garret A. Hobart (1844–99). Burr, born in Newark and educated at what is now Princeton University, is best remembered for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel at Weehawken in 1804. Hobart was born in Long Branch, graduated from Rutgers College, and served as a lawyer in Paterson until elected vice president in 1896; he died in office.
Four New Jerseyites have become associate justices of the US Supreme Court: William Paterson (b.Ireland, 1745–1806), Joseph P. Bradley (1813–92), Mahlon Pitney (1858–1924), and William J. Brennan, Jr. (1906-1997). Among the relatively few New Jerseyites to serve in the US cabinet was William E. Simon (1927), secretary of the treasury under Gerald Ford.
Few New Jerseyites won important political status in colonial years because the colony was so long under New York's political and social domination. Lewis Morris (b.New York, 1671–1746) was named the first royal governor of New Jersey when severance from New York came in 1738. Governors who made important contributions to the state included William Livingston (b.New York, 1723–90), first governor after New Jersey became a state in 1776; Marcus L. Ward (1812–84), a strong Union supporter; and Alfred E. Driscoll (1902–75), who persevered in getting New Jersey a new state constitution in 1947 despite intense opposition from the Democratic Party leadership. Other important historical figures are Molly Pitcher (Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, 1754?–1832), a heroine of the American Revolution, and Zebulon Pike (1779–1813), the noted explorer.
Two New Jersey persons have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Woodrow Wilson in 1919, and Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947) in 1931. A three-man team at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill won the 1956 physics award for their invention of the transistor: Walter Brattain (b.China, 1902–87), John Bardeen (b.Wisconsin, 1908–91), and William Shockley (b.England, 1910–89). Dr. Selman Waksman (b.Russia, 1888–1973), a Rutgers University professor, won the 1952 prize in medicine and physiology for the discovery of streptomycin. Dickinson Woodruff (1895–1973) won the medicine and physiology prize in 1956, and Joshua Lederberg (b.1925) was a co-winner in 1958. Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (b.Germany, 1879–1955), winner of a Nobel Prize in 1921, spent his last decades in Princeton. One of the world's most prolific inventors, Thomas Alva Edison (b.Ohio, 1847–1931) patented over 1,000 devices from workshops at Menlo Park and West Orange. David Dinkins (b.1927), first African-American mayor of New York was born in Trenton, New Jersey. Norman Schwarzkopf (b.1934), commander of US forces in Desert Storm (Gulf War), was born August 22, 1934 in Trenton, New Jersey. Michael Chang (b.1972), 1989 French Open tennis champion, was born in Hoboken.
The state's traditions in the arts began in colonial times. Patience Lovell Wright (1725–86) of Bordentown was America's first recognized sculptor. Jonathan Odell (1737–1818) was an anti-Revolutionary satirist, while Francis Hopkinson (b.Pennsylvania, 1737–91), lawyer, artist, and musician, lampooned the British. Authors of note after the Revolution included William Dunlap (1766–1839), who compiled the first history of the stage in America; James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851), one of the nation's first novelists; Mary Mapes Dodge (b.New York, 1838–1905), noted author of children's books; Stephen Crane (1871–1900), famed for The Red Badge of Courage (1895); and Albert Payson Terhune (1872–1942), beloved for his collie stories.
Quite a number of prominent 20th-century writers were born in or associated with New Jersey. They include poets William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) and Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997); satirist Dorothy Parker (1893–1967); journalist-critic Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943); Edmund Wilson (1895–1972), influential critic, editor, and literary historian; Norman Cousins (1912–90); Norman Mailer (b.1923); Thomas Fleming (b.1927); John McPhee (b.1931); Philip Roth (b.1933); Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones, b.1934); and Peter Benchley (b.New York, 1940).
Notable 19th-century artists were Asher B. Durand (1796–1886) and George Inness (b.New York, 1825–94). The best-known 20th-century artist associated with New Jersey was Ben Shahn (1898–1969); cartoonist Charles Addams (1912–88) was born in Westfield. Noted photographers born in New Jersey include Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and Dorothea Lange (1895–1965). Important New Jersey composers were Lowell Mason (b.Massachusetts, 1792–1872), called the "father of American church music," and Milton Babbitt (b.Pennsylvania, 1916), long active at Princeton. The state's many concert singers include Anna Case (1889–1984), Paul Robeson (1898–1976), and Richard Crooks (1900–72). Popular singers include Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (1915–98), Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990), Dionne Warwick (b.1941), Paul Simon (b.1942), and Bruce Springsteen (b.1949). Jazz musician William "Count" Basie (1904–84) was born in Red Bank.
Other celebrities native to New Jersey are actors Jack Nicholson (b.1937), Michael Douglas (b.1944), Meryl Streep (b.1948), and John Travolta (b.1954). Comedians Lou Costello (1906–59), Ernie Kovacs (1919–62), Jerry Lewis (b.1926), and Clerow "Flip" Wilson (1933–98) were also born in the state. New Jersey-born athletes include figure skater Richard "Dick" Button (b.1929), winner of two Olympic gold medals.