Notable New Yorkers:
Cultural Medallions in New York City
The Historic Landmarks Preservation Center has installed nearly 140 cultural medallions, to date, throughout the five boroughs. To see the location of a cultural medallion, please visit our Locations page. And to nominate a historically-worthy individual for a cultural medallion, go to our Contact page.
Bella Abzug
July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998
Othmar H. Ammann
March 26, 1879 – September 22, 1965
Marian Anderson
February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993
Hannah Arendt
October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975
Chester Alan Arthur
October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886
Brooks Atkinson
November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984
Wystan Hugh Auden (W.H. Auden)
February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973
James Baldwin
August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987
Albert Sprague Bard
December 19, 1866 – March 25, 1963
John Barrymore
February 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942
Bernard M. Baruch College/CUNY Founded 1919
Harry Belafonte
March 1, 1927 – April 25, 2023
Irving Berlin
May 23, 1888 – September 22, 1989
Leonard Bernstein
August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990
William Cullen Bryant
November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878
Alfred M. Butts
April 13, 1899 – April 4, 1993
James Cagney
July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986
Alexander Calder
July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976
Willa Cather
December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947
James J. Corbett
September 1, 1866 – February 18, 1933
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910
Katherine Cornell
February 16, 1893 – June 9, 1974
Guthrie McClintic
August 6, 1893 – October 29, 1961
Malcolm Cowley
August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989
Hart Crane
July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932
Christo (Vladimirov Javacheff)
June 13, 1935 - May 31, 2020
Jeanne-Claude (Denat de Guillebon)
June 13, 1935 - November 18, 2009
Hume Cronyn
July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003
e.e. cummings
October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962
Mercier (Merce) Philip Cunningham
April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009
George William Curtis
February 24, 1824 – August 31, 1892
Jacques d’Amboise
July 28, 1934 – May 2, 2021
Miles Dewey Davis III (Miles Davis)
May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991
Cecil B. DeMille
August 12, 1881 – January 21, 1959
John Dewey
October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952
Theodore Dreiser
August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945
David Dubinsky
February 22, 1892 – September 17, 1982
W.E.B. Du Bois
February 23, 1868 – August 27,1963
Duke Ellington
April 29, 1899 – May 24,1974
Beatrix Farrand
June 19, 1872 – February 28, 1959
Edna Ferber
August 15, 1887 – April 16, 1968
Ella Fitzgerald
April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996
John J. Fitzgerald/‘The Big Apple’
March 7, 1893 – March 18, 1963
Stephen Foster
July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864
Henry Louis Gehrig (Lou Gehrig)
June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941
George Gershwin
September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937
Ira Gershwin
December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983
Charles Dana Gibson
September 14, 1867 – December 23, 1944
Allen Ginsberg
June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997
Horace Greeley
February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872
George Grosz
July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959
Claudio Arrau
February 6, 1903 – June 9, 1991
Woody Guthrie
July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967
William F. “Bull” Halsey
October 30, 1882 – August 16, 1959
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry
May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965
Jimi Hendrix
November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970
Victor Herbert
February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924
Oscar Hijuelos
August 24, 1951 – October 12, 2013
Al Hirschfeld
June 21, 1903 – January 20, 2003
Malvina Hoffman
June 15, 1887 – July 10, 1996
Winslow Homer
February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910
Harry Lloyd Hopkins
August 17, 1890 – January 29, 1946
Edward Hopper
July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967
Vladimir Horowitz
October 1, 1903 – November 5, 1989
Harry Houdini
March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926
Charles Evans Hughes
April 11, 1862 – August 27, 1948
Zora Neale Hurston
January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960
Ada Louise Huxtable
March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013
Washington Irving
April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859
Charles Ives
October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954
Henry James
April 15, 1843 – February 28, 1916
Scott Joplin
c. 1868 – April 1, 1917
Jack Kerouac
March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969
Lincoln Kirstein
May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996
Edward I. Koch
December 12, 1924 – February 1, 2013
Larry Kramer
June 25, 1935 – May 27, 2020
Fiorello Henry La Guardia
December 11, 1882 – September 20, 1947
Sinclair Lewis
February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951
John Vliet Lindsay
November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000
Thurgood Marshall
July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993
Terrence McNally
November 3, 1938 – March 24, 2020
Herman Melville
August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891
Edna St. Vincent Millay
February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950
Arthur Miller
October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005
Henry Miller
December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980
John Purroy Mitchel
July 19, 1879 – July 6, 1918
Lady Deborah Moody
1586 – c. 1659
Marianne Moore
November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972
Condé Montrose Nast
March 26, 1873 – September 19, 1942
The New York City Building
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens
Barnett Newman
January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970
Frank O’Hara
March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966
Eugene O’Neill
October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953
Odetta
December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008
Thomas Paine
February 9, 1737 – June 8, 1809
Joseph Papp
June 22, 1921 – October 31, 1991
Edgar Allan Poe
January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849
Katherine Anne Porter
May 15, 1890 – September 18, 1980
Dawn Powell
November 28, 1896 – November 14, 1965
Sergei Rachmaninoff
April 1, 1873 – March 28, 1943
The Reader’s Digest
Founded February 1922
Jerome Robbins
October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998
Paul Robeson
April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976
Edwin Arlington Robinson
December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (Jackie Robinson)
January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972
Emily Warren Roebling *
September 23, 1843 – February 28, 1903
Eleanor Roosevelt
October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945
Harold Ross
November 6, 1892 –December 6, 1951
George Herman Ruth (Babe Ruth)
February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
March 1, 1848 – August 3, 1907
Jonas Edward Salk
October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995
Margaret Sanger
September 14, 1879 – September 6, 1966
Robert E. Sherwood
April 4, 1896 – November 4, 1955
Al Smith
December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944
Stephen Sondheim
March 22, 1930 — November 26, 2021
John Steinbeck
February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968
Wallace Stevens
October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955
Edward Durell Stone
March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978
Stonewall Rebellion
June 28, 1969
Jessica Tandy
June 7, 1909 – September 11, 1994
Nikola Tesla
July 10, 1856 – January 7, 1943
Léon Theremin
August 27, 1896 – November 3, 1993
Dorothy Thompson
July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961
James Van Der Zee
June 29, 1886 – May 15, 1983
James J. Walker
June 19, 1881 – November 18, 1946
Thomas Waller (Fats Waller)
May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943
Andy Warhol
August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987
Ethel Waters
October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977
Edith Wharton
January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937
Walter Francis White
July 1, 1893 – March 21, 1955
Roy Wilkins
August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981
Edmund Wilson
May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972
Edith (Edie) Windsor
June 20, 1929 – September 12, 2017
Richard Wright
September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960
*Other Cultural Medallions Pending