American Heroes

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American Heroes

Clara Barton
George Washington Carver
Christa McAuliffe

This list of more than 200 American heroes has been selected by the White House as part of the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. In collaboration with their posts, American Spaces may consider programs and activities to commemorate these individuals. Relevant program toolkits have been linked to individuals’ names. 

American Spaces visitors can access the American Heroes collection in OverDrive. The collection includes more than 200 books, audiobooks, and magazines written by or written about these American Heroes.

Each individual has been chosen for embodying the American spirit of daring and defiance, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love. Astounding the world by the sheer power of their example, each one of them has contributed indispensably to America’s noble history, the best chapters of which are still to come.

President Donald J. Trump, Executive Order 13978 (Building the National Garden of American Heroes) 

Arranged Alphabetically

Arranged by Content Category

Alphabetical List

A–C
  • Ansel Adams
  • John Adams
  • Samuel Adams
  • Muhammad Ali (Program Toolkit)
  • Luis Walter Alvarez
  • Susan B. Anthony
  • Hannah Arendt
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Neil Armstrong
  • Crispus Attucks
  • John James Audubon
  • Lauren Bacall
  • Clara Barton
  • Todd Beamer
  • Alexander Graham Bell
  • Roy Benavidez
  • Ingrid Bergman
  • Irving Berlin
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • Daniel Boone
  • Norman Borlaug
  • William Bradford
  • Herb Brooks
  • Kobe Bryant
  • William F. Buckley Jr.
  • Sitting Bull
  • Frank Capra
  • Andrew Carnegie
  • Charles Carroll
  • John Carroll
  • George Washington Carver
  • Johnny Cash
  • Joshua Chamberlain
  • Whittaker Chambers
  • Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman
  • Ray Charles
  • Julia Child
  • Gordon Chung-Hoon
  • William Clark
  • Henry Clay
  • Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
  • Roberto Clemente
  • Grover Cleveland
  • Red Cloud
  • William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody
  • Nat King Cole
  • Samuel Colt
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Calvin Coolidge
  • James Fenimore Cooper
  • Davy Crockett
D-G
  • Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
  • Miles Davis
  • Dorothy Day
  • Joseph H. De Castro
  • Emily Dickinson
  • Walt Disney (Program Toolkit)
  • William “Wild Bill” Donovan
  • Jimmy Doolittle
  • Desmond Doss
  • Frederick Douglass
  • Herbert Henry Dow
  • Katharine Drexel
  • Peter Drucker
  • Amelia Earhart
  • Thomas Edison
  • Jonathan Edwards
  • Albert Einstein
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • Duke Ellington
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Medgar Evers
  • David Farragut
  • the Marquis de La Fayette
  • Mary Fields
  • Henry Ford
  • George Fox
  • Aretha Franklin
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Milton Friedman
  • Robert Frost
  • Gabby Gabreski
  • Bernardo de Gálvez
  • Lou Gehrig
  • Theodor Seuss Geisel
  • Cass Gilbert
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • John Glenn
  • Barry Goldwater
  • Samuel Gompers
  • Alexander Goode
  • Carl Gorman
  • Billy Graham
  • Ulysses S. Grant
  • Nellie Gray
  • Nathanael Greene
  • Woody Guthrie
H-L
M-R
  • Douglas MacArthur
  • Dolley Madison
  • James Madison
  • George Marshall
  • Thurgood Marshall
  • William Mayo
  • Christa McAuliffe
  • William McKinley
  • Louise McManus
  • Herman Melville
  • Thomas Merton
  • George P. Mitchell
  • Maria Mitchell
  • William “Billy” Mitchell
  • Samuel Morse
  • Lucretia Mott
  • John Muir
  • Audie Murphy
  • Edward Murrow
  • John Neumann
  • Annie Oakley
  • Jesse Owens
  • Rosa Parks
  • George S. Patton Jr.
  • Charles Willson Peale
  • William Penn
  • Oliver Hazard Perry
  • John J. Pershing
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Clark Poling
  • John Russell Pope
  • Elvis Presley (Program Toolkit)
  • Jeannette Rankin
  • Ronald Reagan
  • Walter Reed
  • William Rehnquist
  • Paul Revere
  • Henry Hobson Richardson
  • Hyman Rickover
  • Sally Ride
  • Matthew Ridgway
  • Jackie Robinson
  • Norman Rockwell
  • Caesar Rodney
  • Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • Theodore Roosevelt
  • Betsy Ross
  • Babe Ruth
S-V
  • Sacagawea
  • Jonas Salk
  • John Singer Sargent
  • Antonin Scalia
  • Norman Schwarzkopf
  • Junípero Serra
  • Elizabeth Ann Seton
  • Robert Gould Shaw
  • Fulton Sheen
  • Alan Shepard
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Margaret Chase Smith
  • Bessie Smith
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
  • Jimmy Stewart
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Gilbert Stuart
  • Anne Sullivan
  • William Howard Taft
  • Maria Tallchief
  • Maxwell Taylor
  • Tecumseh
  • Kateri Tekakwitha
  • Shirley Temple
  • Nikola Tesla
  • Jefferson Thomas
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • Jim Thorpe
  • Augustus Tolton
  • Alex Trebek
  • Harry S Truman
  • Sojourner Truth
  • Harriet Tubman
  • Dorothy Vaughan
  • C. T. Vivian
  • John von Neumann
W-Z

American Heroes by Strategic Focus Area

America’s 250th Anniversary
  • John Adams
  • Samuel Adams
  • Crispus Attucks
  • William Bradford
  • Charles Carroll
  • William Clark
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Davy Crockett
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Bernardo de Gálvez
  • Nathanael Greene
  • Alexander Hamilton
  • Patrick Henry
  • Sam Houston
  • Julia Ward Howe
  • John Jay
  • Thomas Jefferson (Program Toolkit)
  • Francis Scott Key
  • Henry Knox
  • Tadeusz Kościuszko
  • Pierre Charles L’Enfant
  • the Marquis de La Fayette
  • Meriwether Lewis
  • Dolley Madison
  • James Madison
  • Charles Willson Peale
  • William Penn
  • Paul Revere
  • Caesar Rodney
  • Betsy Ross
  • Sacagawea
  • Gilbert Stuart
  • George Washington (Program Toolkit)
  • John Washington
  • Roger Williams
  • John Winthrop
  • Lorenzo de Zavala
American Excellence
  • Ansel Adams
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Lauren Bacall
  • Clara Barton
  • Ingrid Bergman
  • Irving Berlin
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • Daniel Boone
  • Frank Capra
  • John Carroll
  • Johnny Cash
  • Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman
  • Ray Charles
  • Julia Child
  • Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
  • William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody
  • Nat King Cole
  • Miles Davis
  • Dorothy Day
  • Walt Disney (Program Toolkit)
  • Katharine Drexel
  • Jonathan Edwards
  • Duke Ellington
  • Mary Fields
  • George Fox
  • Aretha Franklin
  • Theodor Seuss Geisel
  • Cass Gilbert
  • Billy Graham
  • Charlton Heston
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Billie Holiday
  • Bob Hope
  • Whitney Houston
  • Elia Kazan
  • Helen Keller
  • Harper Lee
  • Clare Boothe Luce
  • Thomas Merton
  • John Neumann
  • Annie Oakley
  • John Russell Pope
  • Elvis Presley (Program Toolkit)
  • Henry Hobson Richardson
  • Norman Rockwell
  • Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Theodore Roosevelt
  • John Singer Sargent
  • Junípero Serra
  • Elizabeth Ann Seton
  • Fulton Sheen
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Bessie Smith
  • Jimmy Stewart
  • Anne Sullivan
  • Maria Tallchief
  • Kateri Tekakwitha
  • Shirley Temple
  • Augustus Tolton
  • Alex Trebek
  • Thomas Ustick Walter
  • Booker T. Washington
  • John Wayne
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Frank Lloyd Wright
Sports
Combating Illegal Activities

No strong fit from the supplied hero list after review.

Counterterrorism
  • Todd Beamer
Cyberspace and Digital
Energy and Energy Security
  • Herbert Henry Dow
  • Thomas Edison
  • George P. Mitchell
  • Hyman Rickover
  • Nikola Tesla
Freedom of Speech
  • Susan B. Anthony
  • Hannah Arendt
  • William F. Buckley Jr.
  • Whittaker Chambers
  • Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
  • James Fenimore Cooper
  • Emily Dickinson
  • Frederick Douglass
  • Jonathan Edwards
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • George Fox
  • Robert Frost
  • Theodor Seuss Geisel
  • Billy Graham
  • Woody Guthrie
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • Patrick Henry
  • Julia Ward Howe
  • Helen Keller
  • Coretta Scott King
  • Martin Luther King Jr. (Program Toolkit)
  • Russell Kirk
  • Jeane Kirkpatrick
  • Harper Lee
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • Clare Boothe Luce
  • Herman Melville
  • Edward Murrow
  • Rosa Parks
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Anne Sullivan
  • Henry David Thoreau
  • Sojourner Truth
  • Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Program Toolkit)
  • Phillis Wheatley
  • Walt Whitman
Freedom of Law
Innovation and Emerging Technology
Peace and Security
  • Roy Benavidez
  • Sitting Bull
  • Joshua Chamberlain
  • Whittaker Chambers
  • Gordon Chung-Hoon
  • Red Cloud
  • Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
  • Joseph H. De Castro
  • William “Wild Bill” Donovan
  • Jimmy Doolittle
  • Desmond Doss
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower
  • David Farragut
  • Gabby Gabreski
  • John Glenn
  • Alexander Goode
  • Carl Gorman
  • Ulysses S. Grant
  • Nathan Hale
  • William Frederick “Bull” Halsey Jr.
  • Ira Hayes
  • Hans Christian Heg
  • Sam Houston
  • Daniel Inouye
  • Andrew Jackson
  • Chief Joseph
  • John F. Kennedy
  • Douglas MacArthur
  • George Marshall
  • William McKinley
  • William “Billy” Mitchell
  • Audie Murphy
  • George S. Patton Jr.
  • Oliver Hazard Perry
  • John J. Pershing
  • Clark Poling
  • Ronald Reagan
  • Hyman Rickover
  • Matthew Ridgway
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • Theodore Roosevelt
  • Norman Schwarzkopf
  • Robert Gould Shaw
  • Margaret Chase Smith
  • Maxwell Taylor
  • Tecumseh
  • Harry S Truman
  • Harriet Tubman
  • George Washington (Program Toolkit)
  • Alvin C. York
Science, Health, and Research
  • Ansel Adams
  • Luis Walter Alvarez
  • John James Audubon
  • Clara Barton
  • Norman Borlaug
  • George Washington Carver
  • Julia Child
  • Albert Einstein
  • Johns Hopkins
  • Edwin Hubble
  • Katherine Johnson (Program Toolkit)
  • William Mayo
  • Christa McAuliffe
  • Louise McManus
  • Maria Mitchell
  • John Muir
  • Walter Reed
  • Jonas Salk
U.S. Economic Growth
  • Norman Borlaug
  • Andrew Carnegie
  • Samuel Colt
  • Calvin Coolidge
  • Herbert Henry Dow
  • Peter Drucker
  • Henry Ford
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Milton Friedman
  • Samuel Gompers
  • Alexander Hamilton
  • William Mayo
  • Ronald Reagan
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sam Walton
  • Booker T. Washington

Updated May 2026

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