← Fame through time1700-1799
The 18th century
Whose working lives fell in the 18th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 18th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
John Singleton Copley21 decades - 2
John Trumbull22 decades - 3
Gilbert Stuart22 decades - 4
Benjamin West22 decades - 5
Charles Willson Peale13 decades - 6
James Peale5 decades - 7
Elizabeth Willing Powelnot measured- - 8
Ralph Earl12 decades - 9
Mather Brown1 decades - 10
William Rushnot measured- - 11
John Smibertnot measured- - 12
Patience Wrightnot measured-
- 13Henrietta Johnston0 decades
- 14
John Greenwoodnot measured- - 15
Edward Savagenot measured- - 16
Matthew Prattnot measured- - 17
Robert Fekenot measured- - 18
John Hesseliusnot measured- - 19Jeremiah Theusnot measured-
- 20
Henry Benbridgenot measured- - 21
William Russell Birchnot measured- - 22Francis Guynot measured-
- 23
Winthrop Chandlernot measured- - 24John Marenot measured-
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.