Here Are the 244 People Who Will Be Honored in the Garden of American Heroes
Rachel del Guidice /
Citing the recent toppling of statues of historical figures, President Donald Trump has announced the names of the 244 people who will be honored in what he calls the “National Garden of American Heroes.”
“The heroes of 1776 have been desecrated, with statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin vandalized and toppled,” Trump states in the executive order, adding: “The National Garden is America’s answer to this reckless attempt to erase our heroes, values, and entire way of life.”
“When the forces of anti-Americanism have sought to burn, tear down, and destroy, patriots have built, rebuilt, and lifted up,” Trump writes in the order. “That is our history. America responded to the razing of the White House by building it back in the same place with unbroken resolve, to the murders of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., with a national temple and the Stone of Hope, and to the terrorism of 9/11 with a new Freedom Tower.”
“In keeping with this tradition, America is responding to the tragic toppling of monuments to our founding generation and the giants of our past by commencing a new national project for their restoration, veneration, and celebration,” the president continued.
While the location of the National Garden of American Heroes hasn’t been set yet, the garden will honor 244 people “for embodying the American spirit of daring and defiance, excellence and adventure, courage and confidence, loyalty and love,” according to the executive order, which also states, “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.”
According to the Monday executive order, the garden is set to be a statuary park with a task force called the Interagency Task Force for Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes in charge of planning the National Garden of American Heroes.
Here are the 244 people Trump said he wants to be honored in the Garden of American Heroes.
1. Ansel Adams, photographer and environmentalist
2. John Adams, second president of the United States
3. Samuel Adams, political philosopher and founding father
4. Muhammad Ali, professional boxer
5. Luis Walter Alvarez, American experimental physicist and Nobel Prize winner
6. Susan B. Anthony, women’s rights activist
7. Hannah Arendt, political theorist
8. Louis Armstrong, trumpeter
9. Neil Armstrong, astronaut and aeronautical engineer
10. Crispus Attucks, first American colonist killed in the American Revolution
11. John James Audubon, ornithologist and artist
12. Lauren Bacall, actress
13. Clara Barton, nurse and founder of the American Red Cross
14. Todd Beamer, passenger on United Airlines Flight 93
15. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone
16. Roy Benavidez, Medal of Honor recipient for actions during the Vietnam War
17. Ingrid Bergman, actress
18. Irving Berlin, composer and lyricist
19. Humphrey Bogart, actor
20. Daniel Boone, pioneer
21. Norman Borlaug, agronomist
22. William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth colony
23. Herb Brooks, coach of U.S. hockey team in 1980 Olympics
24. Kobe Bryant, basketball player
25. William F. Buckley Jr., conservative publisher
26. Sitting Bull, American Indian leader
27. Frank Capra, film director
28. Andrew Carnegie, philanthropist
29. Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence
30. John Carroll, first bishop and archbishop in the United States
31. George Washington Carver, scientist
32. Johnny Cash, singer and songwriter
33. Joshua Chamberlain, former governor of Maine and recipient of Congressional Medal of Honor for actions during the Civil War
34. Whittaker Chambers, writer
35. Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman, brought apple trees to parts of the United States
36. Ray Charles, singer and songwriter
37. Julia Child, cook and TV personality
38. Gordon Chung-Hoon, first Asian American flag officer
39. William Clark, American explorer
40. Henry Clay, seventh House speaker and the ninth secretary of state
41. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), author
42. Roberto Clemente, professional baseball player
43. Grover Cleveland, 22nd president of the United States
44. Red Cloud, Oglala Lakota leader
45. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, soldier and showman
46. Nat King Cole, singer
47. Samuel Colt, inventor who founded Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company
48. Christopher Columbus, explorer
49. Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States
50. James Fenimore Cooper, American writer
51. Davy Crockett, soldier and explorer
52. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Air Force general and commander of the World War II Tuskegee Airmen
53. Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter
54. Dorothy Day, journalist and activist
55. Joseph H. De Castro, first Hispanic-American to be awarded the Medal of Honor
56. Emily Dickinson, poet
57. Walt Disney, writer, film producer, voice actor, and co-founder of the Walt Disney Company
58. William “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, during World War II
59. Jimmy Doolittle, American military general and aviation pioneer
60. Desmond Doss, Army corporal and combat medic in World War II, awarded the Bronze Star Medal
61. Frederick Douglass, abolitionist
62. Herbert Henry Dow, industrialist and founder of Dow Chemical
63. Katharine Drexel, religious sister and educator
64. Peter Drucker, educator and author
65. Amelia Earhart, first female aviator to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean
66. Thomas Edison, inventor
67. Jonathan Edwards, preacher and theologian
68. Albert Einstein, physicist
69. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States
70. Duke Ellington, composer
71. Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher
72. Medgar Evers, civil rights activist
73. David Farragut, flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War
74. The Marquis de La Fayette, French aristocrat and military officer who commanded American troops in Siege of Yorktown
75. Mary Fields, first African American female mail carrier
76. Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
77. George Fox, founder of the Quakers
78. Aretha Franklin, singer and songwriter
79. Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father
80. Milton Friedman, economist and 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences recipient
81. Robert Frost, poet
82. Gabby Gabreski, military pilot who fought in World War II and the Korean War
83. Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish military leader who aided Americans during the Revolution
84. Lou Gehrig, professional baseball first baseman
85. Theodor Seuss Geisel, author and cartoonist
86. Cass Gilbert, American architect
87. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, justice of the Supreme Court
88. John Glenn, astronaut and former United States senator
89. Barry Goldwater, former United States senator
90. Samuel Gompers, leader in American labor movement
91. Alexander Goode, rabbi and United States Army lieutenant
92. Carl Gorman, artist
93. Billy Graham, evangelist
94. Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States
95. Nellie Gray, founder of the March for Life
96. Nathanael Greene, major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War
97. Woody Guthrie, singer and songwriter
98. Nathan Hale, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War
99. William Frederick “Bull” Halsey Jr., fleet admiral in the United States Navy during World War II.
100. Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father
101. Ira Hayes, United States Marine during World War II
102. Hans Christian Heg, journalist and anti-slavery activist
103. Ernest Hemingway, novelist and journalist
104. Patrick Henry, Founding Father
105. Charlton Heston, actor
106. Alfred Hitchcock, movie director
107. Billie Holiday, jazz singer
108: Bob Hope, comedian
109. Johns Hopkins, entrepreneur and investor
110. Grace Hopper, American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral
111. Sam Houston, former United States senator
112. Whitney Houston, singer and actress
113. Julia Ward Howe, poet
114. Edwin Hubble, astronomer
115. Daniel Inouye, former United States senator
116. Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States
117. Robert H. Jackson, Supreme Court justice
118. Mary Jackson, engineer for NASA
119. John Jay, Founding Father, second governor of New York, and the first chief justice of the United States.
120. Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States
121. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
122. Katherine Johnson, mathematician for NASA
123. Barbara Jordan, lawyer and civil rights activist
124. Chief Joseph, Native American tribe leader
125. Elia Kazan, film director
126. Helen Keller, author and disability rights advocate
127. John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States
128. Francis Scott Key, lawyer who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”
129. Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist, author, and wife of Martin Luther King Jr.
130. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader
131. Russell Kirk, conservative historian
132. Jeane Kirkpatrick, first American woman to serve as ambassador to the United Nations
133. Henry Knox, former United States secretary of war
134. Tadeusz Kosciuszko, military engineer
135. Harper Lee, author
136. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, American-French engineer
137. Meriwether Lewis, American explorer
138. Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States
139. Vince Lombardi, football coach
140. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet
141. Clare Boothe Luce, conservative leader and member of Congress
142. Douglas MacArthur, American general SECOND 139
143. Dolley Madison, former first lady and wife of President James Madison
144. James Madison, fourth president of the United States
145. George Marshall, former United States secretary of state
146. Thurgood Marshall, justice of the Supreme Court
147. William Mayo, physician and one of the founders of the Mayo Clinic
148. Christa McAuliffe, teacher and astronaut who was killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
149. William McKinley, 25th president of the United States
150. Louise McManus, first nurse to earn a doctorate
151. Herman Melville, novelist
152. Thomas Merton, Trappist monk
153. George P. Mitchell, businessman, real estate developer, and philanthropist from Texas
154. Maria Mitchell, astronomer
155. William “Billy” Mitchell, army general who is honored as the father of the United States Air Force
156. Samuel Morse, telegraph inventor
157. Lucretia Mott, abolitionist
158. John Muir, known as the father of the national parks
159. Audie Murphy, actor and soldier
160. Edward Murrow, broadcast journalist and war correspondent
161. John Neumann, fourth bishop of Philadelphia
162. Annie Oakley, sharpshooter
163. Jesse Owens, track and field athlete and four-time gold medalist in the 1936 Olympics
164. Rosa Parks, civil rights activist
165. George S. Patton Jr., United States Army general
166. Charles Willson Peale, artist
167. William Penn, founder of the English North American colony, the Province of Pennsylvania
168. Oliver Hazard Perry, naval commander
169. John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I
170. Edgar Allan Poe, writer and poet
171. Clark Poling, United States Army lieutenant and chaplain who gave up his life jacket to another and drowned during World War II
172. John Russell Pope, architect
173. Elvis Presley, singer and songwriter
174. Jeannette Rankin, women’s rights activist and politician
175. Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States
176. Walter Reed, Army physician
177. William Rehnquist, Supreme Court justice
178. Paul Revere, American Revolution patriot
179. Henry Hobson Richardson, architect
180. Hyman Rickover, U.S. Navy admiral
181. Sally Ride, astronaut and physicist
182. Matthew Ridgway, 19th chief of staff of the United States Army
183. Jackie Robinson, first African American to play in Major League Baseball
184. Norman Rockwell, painter
185. Caesar Rodney, Founding Father and former governor of Delaware
186. Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady and activist
187. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States
188. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States
189. Betsy Ross, upholsterer who reportedly created the Betsy Ross flag
190. Babe Ruth, professional baseball player
191. Sacagawea, who assisted in Lewis and Clark expedition
192. Jonas Salk, virologist
193. John Singer Sargent, artist
194. Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court justice
195. Norman Schwarzkopf, United States Army general
196. Junípero Serra, priest and evangelist
197. Elizabeth Ann Seton, first citizen born in the United States to be given the title of “Saint”
198. Robert Gould Shaw, officer in the Civil War
199. Fulton Sheen, bishop and theologian
200. Alan Shepard, astronaut
201. Frank Sinatra, singer
202. Margaret Chase Smith, former senator
203. Bessie Smith, American blues singer
204. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, author and women’s rights activist
205. Jimmy Stewart, actor and military officer
206. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author and abolitionist
207. Gilbert Stuart, painter
208. Anne Sullivan, teacher and companion of Helen Keller
209. William Howard Taft, 27th president of the United States
210. Maria Tallchief, ballerina
211. Maxwell Taylor, United States Army officer
212. Tecumseh, Indian leader
213. Kateri Tekakwitha, Native American saint
214. Shirley Temple, actress
215. Nikola Tesla, inventor
216. Jefferson Thomas, one of the first black students to attend Little Rock Central High School
217. Henry David Thoreau, poet and philosopher
218. Jim Thorpe, Olympic gold medal winner
219. Augustus Tolton, first Roman Catholic priest in the United States
220. Alex Trebek, game show host
221. Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States
222. Sojourner Truth, former slave and abolition activist
223. Harriet Tubman, abolitionist
224. Dorothy Vaughan, mathematician for NASA
225. C. T. Vivian, minister
226. John von Neumann, mathematician
227. Thomas Ustick Walter, architect
228. Sam Walton, businessman
229. Booker T. Washington, educator and author
230. George Washington, first president of the United States
231. John Washington, actor
232. John Wayne, actor
233. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist
234. Phillis Wheatley, poet
235. Walt Whitman, journalist, essayist, and poet
236. Laura Ingalls Wilder, writer
237. Roger Williams, Puritan minister and author, founder of Providence Plantations
238. John Winthrop, lawyer
239. Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
240. Orville Wright, aircraft inventor
241. Wilbur Wright, aircraft inventor
242. Alvin C. York, soldier
243. Cy Young, baseball player
244. Lorenzo de Zavala, physician and politician