What do you want your legacy to be when you’re gone? Perhaps you want loved ones to remember you for your warmth and incredible baking skills. Or maybe you hope that they’ll look back on you fondly for the hilarious jokes and stories you were always ready to share. Everyone leaves some sort of legacy behind, whether it’s remembered by ten or ten million people.
But some influential individuals manage to make such a huge impact on the world that they’re remembered for centuries after they’re gone. Bored Panda has compiled a list down below of some of the most powerful legacies that have been left by artists, scientists, philosophers and more. Enjoy reading about these famous figures’ accomplishments, and be sure to upvote the stories that you hope will live on forever!
#1 Nikola Tesla
Despite inventing alternating current and envisioning technologies like smartphones long before their time, Nikola Tesla passed away in relative obscurity and poverty in a New York hotel room in 1943, with many of his contributions overshadowed by rivals like Thomas Edison. The FBI’s seizure of his papers immediately after his passing only added to the mystery surrounding his work and legacy. However, a resurgence of interest in his visionary ideas began in the 1990s, particularly online, leading to a posthumous recognition that now includes having a leading electric car company named in his honor and a secured status as a pivotal, underappreciated genius.
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#2 Oscar Wilde
Irish playwright, novelist, and poet Oscar Wilde experienced a dramatic fall from grace, bankrupt in Paris in 1900 due to legal fees associated with his imprisonment. While he had achieved some success during his life, it was largely after his passing, and partly due to the notoriety surrounding his imprisonment, that his work gained widespread popularity and he became recognized as one of London’s most significant playwrights. His witty and insightful writings eventually secured his place as a literary icon.
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#3 Franz Kafka
During his lifetime, Franz Kafka worked as an insurance clerk and, by night, penned unsettling stories exploring themes of alienation and bureaucratic absurdity, though most of his work remained unpublished. Before his passing in 1924, he famously asked his friend Max Brod to burn all his manuscripts, a wish Brod fortunately ignored, later publishing iconic novels like The Trial and The Castle. This posthumous publication led to widespread acclaim, particularly after World War II, as Kafka’s prophetic vision of modern anxieties resonated deeply, establishing him as a highly influential literary figure and coining the term “Kafkaesque.”
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#4 Anne Frank
While hiding from persecution in an Amsterdam attic for two years, young Anne Frank filled a checkered diary, a thirteenth birthday gift, with her poignant and everyday observations, dreaming of becoming a writer. After her family was betrayed and captured in 1944, Anne tragically passed of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen. Her father, Otto, the only survivor, later found and published her diary, which has since been translated into over 70 languages, making Anne’s voice, with her enduring belief in humanity’s goodness, one of the most recognizable and enduring.
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#5 Alan Turing
A brilliant mathematician whose work was foundational to computer science and artificial intelligence, Alan Turing also made indispensable contributions to Allied efforts in World War II by cracking German Enigma codes. Despite his monumental achievements, he was tragically persecuted for his partner’s preferences in the years following the war, a conviction that overshadowed his genius during his lifetime. It was only decades after his early passing that the full extent of his impact was widely recognized, leading to a posthumous royal pardon and his current status as a celebrated scientific pioneer and a pivotal figure of the 20th century.
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#6 H.P. Lovecraft
During the Great Depression, H.P. Lovecraft penned his tales of ancient cosmic horrors and forbidden knowledge for cheap pulp magazines, finding few readers and living a modest life with his aunts. When he passed away from intestinal cancer in 1937, his literary estate was valued at a mere $500. It was fellow writer August Derleth, through Arkham House publishing, who began the effort to preserve Lovecraft’s stories, initiating his gradual ascent from obscurity to eventually becoming a major influence on popular culture, with his tentacled creations now appearing in everything from movies to games.
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#7 Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei, a pivotal figure in the scientific revolution, made groundbreaking contributions as a scientist, mathematician, and astronomer, including building one of the first powerful telescopes and discovering celestial features like sunspots and moon craters. Despite these advancements, he faced significant criticism during his lifetime, particularly from religious authorities who opposed his support for the heliocentric model, which stated that the Earth revolved around the sun. His work fundamentally changed our understanding of the cosmos, though full appreciation for his insights came long after his confrontations with the establishment.
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#8 Frida Kahlo
During her lifetime, Frida Kahlo’s artistic brilliance was often overshadowed, and she was frequently seen merely as the eccentric wife of fellow artist Diego Rivera, despite creating deeply personal and powerful masterpieces exploring identity, pain, and power. It was only after her passing that her raw and graphic paintings gained widespread international recognition. Now, Kahlo’s work and her distinctive image are celebrated globally, appearing on merchandise and in feminist memes, solidifying her status as a significant and influential artist.
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#9 Alfred Wegener
German scientist Alfred Lothar Wegener dedicated much of his life to researching continental drift, proposing that Earth’s continents were once connected and had slowly moved apart. However, during his lifetime, his theories lacked concrete proof and did not gain widespread acceptance within the scientific community. It was only after Wegener’s passing that further evidence, notably discovered by Tuzo Wilson, validated his groundbreaking ideas about plate tectonics.
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#10 El Greco
Domenikos Theotokopoulos, better known as El Greco, was a painter from Crete who found himself at odds with both the king and the Catholic Church in his adopted country of Spain during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, leading to his work being largely underappreciated in his era. So little was known about his life that he was essentially forgotten for hundreds of years. It wasn’t until artists like Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock rediscovered and championed his unique style that El Greco’s artistic genius was finally celebrated posthumously.
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#11 Edgar Allan Poe
Though he pioneered the detective fiction genre and penned famously dark and macabre tales, Edgar Allan Poe often struggled with financial hardship and professional instability during his lifetime. His passing under mysterious circumstances at a young age only added to the mystique surrounding his persona. It was largely after his passing that his profound influence on literature became widely acknowledged, with his haunting stories and poems securing his place as a master of suspense and the gothic, captivating readers for generations.
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#12 Vincent Van Gogh
Despite a prolific output of over 2,000 artworks in just ten years, Vincent van Gogh experienced little professional success, selling only a single painting while alive and grappling with poverty and mental health challenges, relying on his brother Theo for financial support. Following his passing in 1890, it was Theo’s widow who began promoting his art, initiating a slow but steady rise in recognition that culminated by the mid-20th century with his vibrant works fetching millions. Now, masterpieces like ‘Starry Night’ are globally recognized, and dedicated museums draw vast numbers of visitors, cementing the legacy of this once-rejected artist as one of history’s most cherished painters.
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#13 Gregor Mendel
Working quietly in his monastery garden, Gregor Mendel conducted meticulous experiments with pea plants that would eventually revolutionize biology, yet the scientific community largely overlooked his discoveries on inheritance when he published them in 1866. It took several decades after his passing for other scientists, at the dawn of the 20th century, to independently unearth his findings and recognize their immense importance. This belated recognition cemented Mendel’s status as the foundational figure of modern genetics, a field built upon his patient and insightful work.
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#14 Vivian Maier
Throughout her life, Vivian Maier worked primarily as a nanny, all the while secretly pursuing her passion for street photography and amassing an enormous collection of remarkable images that remained largely unseen. It was only after her passing, when boxes of her negatives and undeveloped film were discovered by chance at an auction, that her extraordinary talent came to light. This posthumous discovery revealed Maier as a significant and insightful chronicler of mid-20th century urban American life, earning her widespread acclaim as a major street photographer.
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#15 Henry David Thoreau
While Henry David Thoreau is now celebrated for his transcendentalist philosophy and profound connection with nature, his work, including the seminal ‘Walden’ which details his experiment in simple living, did not achieve widespread acclaim during his lifetime. It was only well after his passing in 1862 that his writings, with their emphasis on individualism and nature, gained significant appreciation. Today, Thoreau’s essays and philosophical insights have inspired generations of environmentalists and thinkers, establishing him as a key American literary and philosophical figure.
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#16 Sylvia Plath
During her lifetime, Sylvia Plath published a collection of poetry, The Colossus, and the semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar under a pseudonym, gaining some literary recognition but also grappling with intense personal struggles. Her most famous works, including the powerful and raw poetry collection Ariel, were published posthumously following her passing in 1963. This later release cemented her status as a significant and fiercely original voice in 20th-century poetry, with her work continuing to resonate for its unflinching exploration of female experience and mental anguish.
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#17 Joan Of Arc
While Joan of Arc achieved significant military victories for France during the Hundred Years’ War, her enduring status as a major figure in Western civilization largely developed after her passing. Burned at the stake as a heretic by the English and their French allies, her passing transformed her into a martyr and a potent national symbol for France. A posthumous retrial in 1456 cleared her name, further cementing her heroic legacy, which culminated in her later canonization as a saint.
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#18 Emily Dickinson
Throughout her reclusive life in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson penned nearly 1,800 poems, yet fewer than a dozen were published during her lifetime, and those were often altered by editors. It was only after her passing that her sister Lavinia discovered the vast collection of her unconventional and deeply introspective work. The subsequent publication of her poems revealed Dickinson as a strikingly original and innovative voice, solidifying her posthumous reputation as one of America’s greatest and most enigmatic poets.
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#19 Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson, a Swedish journalist and investigator known for his work combating right-wing extremism, did not live to see the global phenomenon his “Millennium” trilogy would become. He passed away suddenly in 2004 before the first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was even published. Following their posthumous release, the gripping novels achieved immense international success, catapulting Larsson to worldwide fame as a master of crime fiction and making his character Lisbeth Salander an iconic literary figure.
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#20 Jeff Buckley
With a soaring, ethereal voice and a unique blend of rock, folk, and soul, Jeff Buckley released only one studio album, Grace, during his tragically short life. While the album received critical acclaim, mainstream success was still building when he drowned accidentally in 1997. In the years following his passing, his music, particularly his haunting rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” gained immense international popularity and a devoted following, solidifying his legacy as an influential and deeply missed artist.
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#21 Johannes Vermeer
While Johannes Vermeer created his exquisitely detailed and light-filled paintings of domestic life in 17th-century Delft, he achieved only modest recognition during his lifetime and produced a relatively small number of works. After his passing, he fell into obscurity for nearly two centuries. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that art critics and historians rediscovered his exceptional talent, particularly his masterful use of light and intimate portrayals, leading to his current celebrated status as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.
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#22 Herman Melville
Although Herman Melville penned what would later be considered a masterpiece, Moby D[..], his literary career during his lifetime saw declining success, with his later shift to poetry also failing to gain traction. By the time he passed in 1891, none of his books were in print, and he was largely forgotten in American literature. However, a significant revival of interest in his work began in the early 1900s, leading to retrospective acclaim and securing his place among America’s great authors.
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#23 Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat burst onto the New York art scene in the early 1980s, rapidly gaining fame for his powerful, neo-expressionist paintings that often incorporated text and critiqued social and racial issues. Though he achieved significant recognition and collaborated with artists like Andy Warhol during his short but prolific career, his untimely passing at the age of 27 cut short his immense potential. In the decades since, his work has only grown in stature and value, solidifying his legacy as one of the most influential and iconic artists of the late 20th century.
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#24 John Keats
English Romantic poet John Keats crafted some of the most celebrated odes and lyrical poetry in the language, yet he passed young from tuberculosis before his work achieved widespread fame. While he gained some critical notice during his brief career, his profound influence and status as one of the most beloved figures in English literature truly solidified in the decades following his passing. This posthumous recognition has ensured his enduring legacy, with his poems continuing to be studied and cherished.
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#25 Nick Drake
With his gentle, intricate guitar work and melancholic, poetic lyrics, English singer-songwriter Nick Drake released three albums during his short lifetime that, while critically respected, found little commercial success. Plagued by depression, he passed away young, and it was only in the subsequent years and decades that his uniquely atmospheric music garnered a significant cult following and widespread acclaim. Today, Drake is regarded as a highly influential, albeit tragic, figure whose introspective songs continue to resonate deeply with new generations of listeners.
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