Famous People Who Died In 1902

Emile Zola was a French novelist, journalist, and playwright. He played a key role in the development of theatrical naturalism and was a well-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism. He was also a political journalist and was influential in the political liberalization of France. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twice.

Levi Strauss, the man behind the iconic clothing brand Levi Strauss & Co., or Levi's, which was also the first blue-jeans-manufacturing firm, was born in Germany and later moved to the US. It is rumored that his jeans were meant for the labor class, and he himself had never worn a pair.

Rudolf Virchow was a German physician, pathologist, anthropologist, biologist, prehistorian, editor, writer, and politician. Nicknamed the Pope of medicine by his colleagues, Virchow is credited with founding the field of social medicine. He is also widely regarded as the father of modern pathology.  Rudolf Virchow was the first person to name diseases, such as thrombosis, leukemia, ochronosis, embolism, and chordoma.

Walter Reed was a U.S. Army physician best remembered for leading a team which confirmed that yellow fever gets transmitted by a mosquito rather than by direct contact. His work went a long way in the fight against yellow fever.

Political caricaturist and cartoonist Thomas Nast was born in Germany and moved to the U.S. at age 6. He began his career as a draftsman at the Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and then worked for Harper’s Weekly and the New York Illustrated News. His creations include the Republican Party elephant.

Landscape painter Albert Bierstadt immortalized the natural attractions of the American West, such as the Rocky Mountains, in his works. One of the finest painters of the Hudson River school, he specialized in paintings that showcased bright lighting, or luminism, and created over 500 paintings throughout his career.

John Wesley Powell was a geologist and explorer of the American West. He undertook a series of adventures as a young man and later joined the military. He is best known for the three-month-long geographic expedition he undertook down the Green and Colorado rivers. He was made the director of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1881.  

The founder of the Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math, Swami Vivekananda was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, and spiritual leader. He is credited with introducing the Indian philosophies of Yoga and Vedanta to the Western world. He is also credited with elevating the status of Hinduism as a major religion in the modern world by raising interfaith awareness.

Known for his ground-breaking research on sexual psychopathology, German psychologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing worked on varied subjects such as sexual aberration and hypnosis. His Psychopathia Sexualis was one of the first written works that discussed LGBT sex and also spoke about taboo topics such as sadism, necrophilia, and masochism.

Civil servant-statesman of the Austrian Empire Count Richard von Belcredi served as Minister-President and Minister of State and later as President of the Cisleithanian Administrative Court. He planned to implement a federation of Austrian crown lands taking Swiss constitution as his model and his Three Count Ministry recommended conservative federalism in which historic rights of the Slavs would get recognition.

Nineteenth-century French sculptor Jules Dalou, who excelled in bronze art, was initially trained by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. He spent a few years in exile in England after the French government convicted him for participating in the Paris Commune. The Triumph of the Republic remains one of his best-known works.

Joaquim Augusto Mouzinho de Albuquerque was a Portuguese cavalry officer best remembered for his service as the Governor-General of Portuguese Mozambique from 1896 to 1897. He helped Portugal annex Mozambique by defeating and capturing the tribal king Gungunhana in 1895.  

Francis A. Pratt spent his early days as an apprentice at a machine shop. He later met Amos Whitney, with whom he set up the manufacturing firm Pratt & Whitney. Apart from developing the Lincoln miller, Pratt also contributed to inventing machine parts for sewing machines, guns, and other industries.

American women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton first came to know about laws that discriminated against women while studying law books in the office of her father, who was a prominent judge. She later became the president of the National Woman Suffrage Association and co-wrote books such as The Woman's Bible.

Lord Acton was an English Catholic historian, writer, and politician. Born to a prominent family in Naples, he was the son of a British baronet. He studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he developed a deep love of historical research. After building a career as a historian and writer, he ventured into politics as well. 

Anglo-Australian bush poet and military officer Breaker Morant was one of the first war criminals who was court-martialled, convicted and executed in British military history for murder during the Second Anglo-Boer War. A folk hero in modern Australia, Morant became subject of several books, a play and an award-winning film.