Famous People Who Died In 1857

Angelica Hamilton was the daughter of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of America. She is said to have suffered a mental breakdown in 1801 when her brother Philip was killed in a duel. It is said that she could never recover from the shock and the incident was the main reason for her lifelong mental health issues.

French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was initially a military engineer. In his early days, he and his family escaped the Reign of Terror and settled in Arcueil. He was one of the pioneers of mathematical analysis and made significant contributions to subjects such as error theory, calculus, and complex functions.

Mikhail Glinka was a Russian composer who is considered the fountainhead of classical music in Russia. Glinka was the first Russian musician to achieve widespread acclaim within his own country. His compositions went on to influence subsequent generations of Russian composers, such as the members of The Five.

Carl Czerny was an Austrian composer, pianist, and teacher of Czech origin.  Born into a musical family, he started playing the piano as a toddler and began composing at the age of seven. He was prolific in his music production and composed over a thousand works, with his music spanning the late Classical and early Romantic eras.  

British engineer and inventor George Cayley was a pioneer of aeronautics and aviation. He designed the world’s first glider that could successfully carry a human being. He was also a prominent Whig and had contributed to the formation of what is now known as the University of Westminster.

French playwright and author Alfred de Musset is best remembered for his autobiographical The Confession of a Child of the Century. Though he was supposedly part of the Romantic movement, many of his works satirized the movement. He stopped allowing his plays to be staged after The Venetian Night flopped.

David Thompson was a British-Canadian explorer, fur trader, and surveyor. He was known to some native peoples as Koo-Koo-Sint or "the Stargazer". He traveled over 90,000 kilometers (56,000 mi) across North America over the course of his career and established a successful fur trade. He was married to a Metis woman and had numerous children. 

Irish-born Francis Beaufort grew up to be a British Royal Navy admiral. He also went down in history as the inventor of the Beaufort wind force scale, which was meant for observing wind force at sea. His personal diaries, written in Beaufort cipher, reveal an incestuous relationship with his sister.

Agustina de Aragon was a Spanish warrior best remembered for her valiant effort while defending Spain during the Peninsular War. Nicknamed the Spanish Joan of Arc, Agustina served in the Spanish Army. Regarded as a heroine in Spain, Agustina de Aragón has been the subject of several stories, folklore, and artwork. Her life inspired the 1929 film Agustina of Aragon.

Starting his career with the army, French criminal Eugène François Vidocq fought in the battles of Valmy and Jemappes. Often jailed for petty offenses, he later used his expertise of being among thieves to form his own police force, or the police de sûreté, inspiring authors such as Victor Hugo.

Henry Montgomery Lawrence was a British statesman, administrator, military officer, and surveyor in British India. He is best remembered for founding The Lawrence Military Asylums, a series of military-style boarding schools. Three of these schools exist today in present-day India and Pakistan.

Manuel Oribe was a Uruguayan politician who served as the second Constitutional President of the country from 1 March 1835 to 24 October 1838. He is credited with founding the famous National Party, the oldest political party in the country.

William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst was initially sent as an ambassador to China but returned without securing any trade relations because of his refusal to show complete subordination. He later became the governor-general of India and annexed major parts of Burma after the First Burmese War.

Alcide d'Orbigny is regarded as the founder of micropaleontology. The French paleontologist traveled for 8 years throughout South America, exploring its natural history and geology. His study of marine fossils, sedimentary rocks, and pollen was accompanied by his iconic written work Paléontologie française. He supported the theory of catastrophism.

Dolores Veintimilla was an Ecuadorian poet best remembered for her poem, Quejas. Veintimilla committed suicide at the age of 27 and some of her works were published posthumously. Although her works were never fully appreciated during her lifetime, Dolores Veintimilla achieved posthumous fame when her works reached the hands of subsequent generation of readers.

Frederick Scott Archer was an English sculptor and photographer best remembered for his invention of a photographic process called the collodion process. His invention enhanced the accessibility of photography for the public. Unfortunately, Scott Archer died impoverished as he failed to patent his discovery before publishing it. As a sculptor, he displayed his works at the Royal Academy of Arts.

German Romantic lyricist Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff is best remembered for his epic poem Robert und Guiscard, which highlights the French Revolution. His prose works such as Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing, revolving around themes such as love, too, gained him fame. He also worked in the civil services

French chemist Louis-Jacques Thenard was born to a farm worker and was educated on scholarships. He grew up to teach chemistry and also joined the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as a foreign member. He is remembered for his discovery of hydrogen peroxide and Thenard’s blue, used in coloring porcelain.

Regarded as the national poet of Greece, Dionysios Solomos penned the Greek national anthem, Hymn to Liberty, which was later also used by Cyprus as its national anthem. Interestingly, all his other poems have been incomplete, and nearly all of his works were published posthumously.

Marshall Hall was an English physician, neurologist, and physiologist. He is credited with contributing immensely to the theory of reflex arc. Hall also wrote many books on neurological diseases, such as epilepsy and apoplexy (stroke). An ardent supporter of the abolitionist movement, Marshall Hall was inducted into the American Philosophical Society (APS) in 1853.

Charles Lucien Bonaparte was a French ornithologist and naturalist. His father Lucien Bonaparte was the brother of Napoleon I, making Charles Lucien Bonaparte the emperor’s nephew. In Luigi Magni's 1990 Italian historical film In the Name of the Sovereign People, Charles was portrayed by Carlo Croccolo.