Famous People Who Died In 1851

J. M. W. Turner was an English printmaker, painter, and watercolorist best remembered for his imaginative landscapes and expressive colorizations. Intensely reclusive and eccentric throughout his life, Turner lived in poor health and squalor for the last few years of his life. He was portrayed by actor Timothy Spall in the 2014 biographical film, Mr. Turner.

American artist and ornithologist John James Audubon is remembered mostly for his illustrations of North American birds. Born as an illegitimate child in France, he later moved to the US and then to Canada, for business, but ended up documenting birds. His best-known work is the pioneering ornithological work The Birds of America.

Hans Christian Ørsted was a Danish chemist and physicist. He was the first person to discover that electric currents can be used to create magnetic fields. His discovery was the first relationship found between magnetism and electricity. Oersted, the unit of the auxiliary magnetic field H, is named in his honor.

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi was a German mathematician best remembered for his contributions to differential equations, dynamics, number theory, determinants, and elliptic functions. He is the first Jewish mathematician to work as a professor at a German university. Jacobi has a crater on the Moon named after him in recognition of his contribution to science.

Joel Roberts Poinsett was an American diplomat, physician, and slave owner. He served as the United States Minister to Mexico from 1 June 1825 to 17 October 1829. He also served as the 15th US Secretary of War from 7 March 1837 to 4 March 1841. 

Marie Thérèse of France was the daughter of Queen Marie Antoinette of France and King Louis XVI. She was married to Louis XIX of France and was technically the Queen consort of France for 20 minutes on 2 August 1830 when Charles X and Louis XIX of France signed the instrument of abdication. Marie-Thérèse has been depicted in many films.

German naturalist and botanist Lorenz Oken is remembered as one of the most significant German natural philosophers of the 19th century and a leader of the Naturphilosophie movement. His studies on Wolfgang von Goethe’s theory on the vertebrate skull helped prepare ground for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Stanko Vraz was a Slovenian-Croatian poet, writer, translator, and collector of folk poems. He is best remembered as the first Croatian to make a living as a professional writer. Stanko Vraz is credited with co-founding one of Croatia's first literary magazines, Kolo. He is also remembered for translating the works of Adam Mickiewicz and Lord Byron among other foreign literature.

Joanna Baillie was a Scottish dramatist and poet who recieved critical acclaim for her works, such as Fugitive Verses and Plays on the Passions. One of her most popular works DeMonfort helped inspire Byron's drama, Manford. Baillie was also known for her philanthropic efforts; she donated half her earnings to charity and took an active part in several philanthropic activities.

Poet, author, and activist Esteban Echeverría is known as one of the most prominent figures of Romanticism in Latin American literature. He was also part of the group that launched the May Organization and joined the campaign to end the dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas.