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Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain (Wilton Norman Chamberlain), 1936-99, American basketball player, b. Philadelphia. At the Univ. of Kansas he was a two-time All-American center. During 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association, "Wilt the Stilt" (over 7 ft 1 in./216 cm) led the league in scoring seven c...
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Guggenheim
Guggenheim , family of American industrialists and philanthropists. Meyer Guggenheim, 1828-1905, b. Aargau canton, Switzerland, emigrated (1847) to the United States, prospered as a retail merchant in Philadelphia, and in time built up a flourishing business importing Swiss embroidery. When nearly...
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Philadelphia
Philadelphia city (1990 pop. 1,585,577), coextensive with Philadelphia co., SE Pa., on the Delaware River c.100 mi (160 km) upstream at the influx of the Schuylkill River; chartered 1701. It is the fifth largest city in the United States and has been a leading commercial and cultural center since t...
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William Scott Vare
William Scott Vare 1867-1934, American political leader, b. Philadelphia. He engaged in machine politics and became (1898) a member of the select council of Philadelphia. He was recorder of deeds (1902-12) and—with his brothers Edward and George—came to control the Republican machine in...
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Betsy Ross
Betsy Ross 1752-1836, American seamstress, b. Philadelphia. Her full name was Elizabeth Griscom Ross. She is known to have made flags during the American Revolution, although the long-accepted story that she designed and made the first American national flag (the Stars and Stripes) is generally dis...
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mint
mint place where legal coinage is manufactured. The name is derived from the temple of Juno Moneta, Rome, where silver coins were made as early as 269 BC Mints existed earlier elsewhere, as in Lydia and in Greece; from there coinage was introduced into Italy. The first U.S. mint was established in ...
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Richard Allen
Richard Allen 1760-1831, American clergyman, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born a slave in Philadelphia. He became pastor of a black group that had seceded from the Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. When the African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized nati...
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Robert Venturi
Robert Venturi 1925-, American architect, b. Philadelphia. In his writings, Venturi inveighed against the banality of modern architecture in the postwar period. He argued instead for a more inclusive, contextual approach to design that heralded the postmodern era in architecture. Among his early la...
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Charles Hodge
Charles Hodge 1797-1878, American Calvinist theologian, b. Philadelphia. He was associated with Princeton Theological Seminary, where, after graduation, he taught first Oriental and biblical literature and later theology for 58 years. His chief work is his Systematic Theology (3 vol., 1872-73). H...
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James Logan
James Logan 1674-1751, American colonial statesman and scholar, b. Ireland. While engaged in the shipping trade, Logan met William Penn and became (1699) his secretary. He emigrated to Philadelphia with Penn and remained his confidential adviser for many years. He served as provincial secretary a...
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