Pennsylvania

John Dickinson

John Dickinson, c. 1782—83
Lawyer, politician, writer, militia officer, signer of the Declaration of Independence; 1732—1808.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin, 1785
Philadelphia printer, writer, scientist, inventor, signer of the Declaration of Independence, diplomat to France; 1706—90.

Robert Morris

Robert Morris, c. 1782
Signer of the Declaration of Independence, “Financier of the Revolution”; 1734—1806.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine, 1791
Author, revolutionary, political philosopher; 1737—1809.

Charles Willson Peale

Self-Portrait, 1795
American painter, soldier; created first American museum; 1741—1827.

Rembrandt Peale

Self-Portrait, 1828
American painter, son of Charles Willson Peale; 1778—1860.

Betsy Ross

The Birth of Old Glory, c. 1917
Philadelphia seamstress and upholsterer.

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush, c. 1818
Philadelphia doctor, signer of the Declaration of Independence; 1738—1820.

William Rush

Self-Portrait, 1822
American sculptor; 1756—1833.

Arthur St. Clair

Arthur St. Clair, 1782—84
Continental Army general, surrendered Fort Ticonderoga to the British; 1737—1818.

The Americans ... revolted not to create but to maintain their freedom. American society had developed differently from that of the Old World. From the time of the first settlements in the seventeenth century, wrote Samuel Williams in 1794, every thing tended to produce, and to establish the spirit of freedom. While the speculative philosophers of Europe were laboriously searching their minds in an effort to decide the first principles of liberty, the Americans had come to experience vividly that liberty in their everyday lives.

— Gordon S. Wood
The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States (2011)