List of people known as father or mother of something
The following tables list men and women described as father or mother of somethingin the sense of a simile, i.e. not literally.. Exceptions are those people described as fathers or mothers of nations; these are listed at Father and Mother of the Nation.
Though someone may be known as a father or mother of something, this does not always mean they invented, discovered or originated the thing with which they are associated. It also does not mean that they always have been or currently are considered a father or mother of it.
Adding entries to this list
Any additions to this list need to include at least one footnote link in the "Source/s" column. Each footnote linked should specify one or more references to credible sources (books, articles, reputable web sites, etc) where a person's description as a father or mother of something is reported. Links to other Wikipedia articles do not qualify; see Wikipedia:Citing sources.
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"Abildgaard, Nikolaj Abraham," entry in 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, online[1]: "ABILDGAARD, NIKOLAJ ABRAHAM (1744-1800), called 'the Father of Danish Painting,' ... a cold theorist... As a technical painter he attained remarkable success, his tone being very harmonious and even, but the effect, to a foreigner's eye, is rarely interesting. His works are scarcely known out of Copenhagen, where he won an immense fame in his own generation."
Gandz and Saloman (1936), The sources of al-Khwarizmi's algebra, Osiris i, p. 263â€"277: "In a sense, Khwarizmi is more entitled to be called "the father of algebra" than Diophantus because Khwarizmi is the first to teach algebra in an elementary form and for its own sake, Diophantus is primarily concerned with the theory of numbers".
, p. 25: "Aristotle, unquestionably the father of scientific methodology, gives in his Posterior analytics such a remarkable account of how one ought to go about a scientific explanation that almost up to the nineteenth century, says Laudan in a somewhat extreme statement, 'philosophers of science were still working largely within the confines of the methodological problems discussed by Aristotle and his commentators.'"
, online at [2], p.390: "Far greater than either of these... was he who has been justly called the Father of Ichthyology, Petrus (Peter) Artedi (1705-35)."
, p. 235: "In developing ways to do this, Beck became the father of cognitive therapy, one of the most important developments in psychotherapy in the last 50 years."
, p.190: "Although Alexander Graham Bell is most famously remembered as the father of the telephone, the reality is that during the latter half of the 1800s dozens of minds were at work on the project of carrying voice over telegraph lines."
, p. 344-5: "...an explicit ideology was constructed justifying what was called... 'the engineering of consent' (Edward Bernays, founding father of the public relations industry in the United States)"
, p. 5: "Anyone seriously interested in the history of music will hear many times that Buddy Bolden was the father of jazz, or that Jelly Roll Morton claimed he was the father of jazz (in 1902, in fact)..." See also Theodore August Metz, Jelly Roll Morton
, p. 2: the Father of Audiology himself, Raymond Carhart at Northwestern University...", p. 912: "Carhart notch: A decrease in the bone-conduction hearing at the 2000 Hz region of patients with otosclerosis first reported by and therefore named after the father of audiology, Raymond Carhart."
"Henry Chadwick, Chad, The Father of Base Ball [sic]"; National Baseball Hall of Fame bio,[4]. Not a player, but a journalist and organizer, the Hall of Fame credits him as "inventor of the box score" and "author of the first rule-book."Free ebook of Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1889, ed. Henry Chadwick at Project Gutenberg: "Henry Chadwick, the veteran journalist, upon whom the honored sobriquet of 'Father of Base Ball[sic]' rests so happily and well, appears in portraiture, and so well preserved in his physical manhood that his sixty-three years rest lightly upon his well timed life.""Matty" at Harvard; The New York Times,February 16, 1909, p. 7: "Charles H. Ebbets, Chairman of the Chadwick Monument Committee, has announced that the contract has been awarded for a suitable monument to be placed on the plot in Greenwood[sic] Cemetery where the remains of the late Henry Chadwick, 'the Father of Baseball,' repose."Collins, Glen (2004): "Ground as Hallowed as Cooperstown," The New York Times,'' April 1, 2004. (Article on baseball notables interred in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn) "Among the nearly 600,000 people buried there are no less than four pioneers who were accorded the title 'Father of Baseball' in the popular press: Henry Chadwick, Duncan Curry, William Tucker and William Wheaton....The memorial for Henry Chadwick bears a 'Father of Base Ball' inscription.... [Duncan] Curry, first president of the Knickerbocker Baseball Club, is immortalized with a monument that proudly dubs him 'Father of Baseball' because he headed the club that scholars say first codified many of the game's rules...."
Cooper, Alan, Why I am called "the Father of Visual Basic" "Mitchell Waite called me the "father of Visual Basic" in the foreword to what I believe was the first book ever published for VB, called the Visual Basic How-To (now in its second edition, published by The Waite Group Press). I thought the appellation was an appropriate one, and frequently use the quoted phrase as my one-line biography."
p. 30}}: "The modern school bus began in a conference in 1939 called by Frank W. Cyr, the 'Father of the Yellow School' bus, who was a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. At that meeting, Cyr urged the standardization of the school bus. Participants came up with the standard yellow color and some basic construction standards. Cyr had... found that children were riding in all sorts of vehicles—one district, he found, was painting their busses red, white, and blue to instill patriotism."
(This book sold fewer than a thousand copies and is accordingly rare and expensive today)., p. 198: "the egotistical Lee De Forest who discovered, however unwittingly, the audion tube that allowed him to proclaim himself 'the father of radio'", p. 132: "De Forest, who was not a modest man, called himself the 'Father of Radio,' an epithet whose accuracy is debatable."
"Fessenden, the Forgotten Father of 'Wireless' Telephony" (section heading)[6]Zuill, William S. (2001): The Forgotten Father of Radio", American Heritage of Science and Technology, 17(1)40-47, as cited in p. 160
p.79: "For years, the name 'Papa Haydn' has characterized the composer." p.83: "It is not for nothing that he is called the Father of the Symphony. With equal justice he could be called the Father of the String Quartet, or the Father of Sonata Form."Free ebook of The Pianoforte Sonata: Its Origin and Development," by J. S. Shedlock, B. A." (1895; Methuen and Company, London) at Project Gutenberg "Haydn, for example, is called the father of the quartet; close investigation, however, would show that he was only a link, and certainly not the first one in a long evolution."
Pareles, Jon (1983): "Earl Hines Dead; Top Jazz Pianist—Redefined the Style in the 1920s Working with Armstrong—Later Led Major Band", The New York Times, April 23, 1983, p.10: "Earl (Fatha) Hines, the father of modern jazz piano, died yesterday in Oakland, Calif. after a heart attack."
Dalvi, Dinanath Atmaran (1879): Aryan Trigonometry.The Theosophist,'' H. P. Blavatsky, editor, 1(1), October, 1879, Theosophical University Press Online Edition[7]: "Western mathematicians call Hipparchus, the Nicaean, the father of trigonometry, although they confessedly know nothing whatever about him beyond what they find in the works of his disciple Ptolemy. But Hipparchus is assigned to the 2nd century B. C., and we have the best reason in the world for knowing that trigonometry was known to the ancient Hindus, like many another science claimed by ignorant Western writers for Egypt, Greece, or Rome. These pretended authorities suggest that Hipparchus "probably employed mechanical contrivances for the construction of solid angles" (Art. Mathematics, New Am. Cyc. XI., 283)..."
, p.9: "Justus Von Liebig, the 'father of modern nutrition', developed the perfect infant food. It consisted of wheat flour, cow's milk, malt flour and bicarbonate of potash."
, p. 93: "Martin Luther (1483-1546) is generally identified as the father of Protestantism. While he was not the first to confront the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, it was he who crystallized the growing unrest and began what is known as the Protestant Reformation."
, p.270: "It delighted the heart of our old friend Bernarr Macfadden, 'the Father of Physical Culture,' when we told him how much athletic activity and good sportsmanship had to do with the rehabilitation of boys."
"Theatrical Notes," The New York Times,April 26, 1932, p.25: "Theodore August Metz, who is often called the father of jazz and is the composer of the song 'There'll Be A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,' is scheduled to attend a reception backstage at Loew's State Theatre...'" See also Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton.
, p.62: "Morton, a pool shark, composer, piano player and part-time pimp, called by many the Father of Jazz...". See also Buddy Bolden, Theodore August Metz
