1891 in the United States

Events from the year 1891 in the United States.

Federal government

 * President: Benjamin Harrison (R-Indiana)
 * Vice President: Levi P. Morton (R-New York)
 * Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
 * Speaker of the House of Representatives:
 * Thomas Brackett Reed (R-Maine) (until March 4)
 * Charles Frederick Crisp (D-Georgia) (starting December 8)


 * Congress: 51st (until March 4), 52nd (starting March 4)

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" ! Governors and lieutenant governors

Governors
• Governor of Alabama: Thomas G. Jones (Democratic)

• Governor of Arkansas: James Philip Eagle (Democratic)

• Governor of California: Robert Waterman (Republican) (until January 8), Henry Markham (Republican) (starting January 8)

• Governor of Colorado: Job Adams Cooper (Republican) (until January 13), John Long Routt (Republican) (starting January 13)

• Governor of Connecticut: Morgan G. Bulkeley (Republican)

• Governor of Delaware: Benjamin T. Biggs (Democratic) (until January 20), Robert J. Reynolds (Democratic) (starting January 20)

• Governor of Florida: Francis P. Fleming (Democratic)

• Governor of Georgia: William J. Northen (Democratic)

• Governor of Idaho: N. B. Willey (Republican)

• Governor of Illinois: Joseph W. Fifer (Republican)

• Governor of Indiana: Alvin P. Hovey (Republican) (until November 23), Ira Joy Chase (Republican) (starting November 23)

• Governor of Iowa: Horace Boies (Democratic)

• Governor of Kansas: Lyman U. Humphrey (Republican)

• Governor of Kentucky: Simon B. Buckner (Democratic) (until September 2), John Y. Brown (Democratic) (starting September 2)

• Governor of Louisiana: Francis T. Nicholls (Democratic)

• Governor of Maine: Edwin C. Burleigh (Republican)

• Governor of Maryland: Elihu Emory Jackson (Democratic)

• Governor of Massachusetts: John Q. A. Brackett (Republican) (until January 8), William E. Russell (Democratic) (starting January 8)

• Governor of Michigan: Cyrus G. Luce (Republican) (until January 1), Edwin B. Winans (Democratic) (starting January 1)

• Governor of Minnesota: William R. Merriam (Republican)

• Governor of Mississippi: John M. Stone (Democratic)

• Governor of Missouri: David R. Francis (Democratic)

• Governor of Montana: Joseph Toole (Democratic)

• Governor of Nebraska: John Milton Thayer (Republican)

• Governor of Nevada: Frank Bell (Republican) (until January 5), Roswell K. Colcord (Republican) (starting January 5)

• Governor of New Hampshire: David H. Goodell (Republican) (until January 8), Hiram A. Tuttle (Republican) (starting January 8)

• Governor of New Jersey: Leon Abbett (Democratic)

• Governor of New York: David B. Hill (Democratic) (until end of December 31)

• Governor of North Carolina: Daniel Gould Fowle (Democratic) (until April 7), Thomas Michael Holt (Democratic) (starting April 7)

• Governor of North Dakota: John Miller (Republican) (until January 7), Andrew H. Burke (Republican) (starting January 7)

• Governor of Ohio: James E. Campbell (Democratic)

• Governor of Oregon: Sylvester Pennoyer (Democratic)

• Governor of Pennsylvania: James A. Beaver (Republican) (until January 20), Robert E. Pattison (Democratic) (starting January 20)

• Governor of Rhode Island: John W. Davis (Democratic) (until May 26), Herbert W. Ladd (Republican) (starting May 26)

• Governor of South Carolina: Benjamin Ryan Tillman (Democratic)

• Governor of South Dakota: Arthur C. Mellette (Republican)

• Governor of Tennessee: Robert Love Taylor (Democratic) (until January 19), John P. Buchanan (Democratic) (starting January 19)

• Governor of Texas: Lawrence Sullivan Ross (Democratic) (until January 20), James Stephen Hogg (Democratic) (starting January 20)

• Governor of Vermont: Carroll S. Page (Republican)

• Governor of Virginia: Philip W. McKinney (Democratic)

• Governor of Washington: Elisha Peyre Ferry (Republican)

• Governor of West Virginia: Aretas B. Fleming (Democratic)

• Governor of Wisconsin: William D. Hoard (Republican) (until January 5), George W. Peck (Democratic) (starting January 5)

• Governor of Wyoming: Amos W. Barber (Republican)

Lieutenant governors
• Lieutenant Governor of California: Stephen M. White (Democratic) (until January 8), John B. Reddick (Republican) (starting January 8)

• Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: William Grover Smith (Republican) (until January 13), William Story (Republican) (starting January 13)

• Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Samuel E. Merwin (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: John S. Gray (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Lyman Ray (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Ira Joy Chase (Republican) (until November 23), Francis M. Griffith (Republican) (starting November 23)

• Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Alfred N. Poyneer (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Andrew J. Felt (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: James William Bryan (Democratic) (until September 2), Mitchell Cary Alford (Democratic) (starting September 2)

• Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: James Jeffries (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: William H. Haile (political party unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: William Ball (Republican) (until January 1), John Strong (Democratic) (starting January 1)

• Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Albert E. Rice (Republican) (until January 5), Gideon S. Ives (Republican) (starting January 5)

• Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: M. M. Evans (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Stephen Hugh Claycomb (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Montana: John E. Rickards (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: George D. Meiklejohn (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Thomas J. Majors (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Frank Bell (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Joseph Poujade (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of New York: Edward F. Jones (Democratic) (until end of December 31)

• Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Thomas M. Holt (Democratic) (until April 7), vacant (starting April 7)

• Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Alfred Dickey (Republican) (until January 7), Roger Allin (Republican) (starting January 7)

• Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: William V. Marquis (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: William T. Davies (Republican) (until January 20), Louis Arthur Watres (Republican) (starting January 20)

• Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: William T. C. Wardwell (political party unknown) (until May 26), Henry A. Stearns (political party unknown) (starting May 26)

• Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Eugene B. Gary (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: James H. Fletcher (Republican) (until month and day unknown), George H. Hoffman (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Benjamin J. Lea (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), William C. Dismukes (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Thomas B. Wheeler (Democratic) (until January 19), George Cassety Pendleton (Democratic) (starting January 19)

• Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Henry A. Fletcher (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James Hoge Tyler (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Charles E. Laughton (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: George W. Ryland (Republican) (until January 5), Charles Jonas (Democratic) (starting January 5)
 * }

Events

 * January 2 – A. L. Drummond of New York is appointed Chief of the Treasury Secret Service.
 * January 5 – Henry B. Brown, of Michigan, is sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
 * January 13 – In California, Leland Stanford (Rep.) re-elected Senator.
 * January 17 – George Bancroft dies at Washington DC at age 91, all government buildings flying flags lower to half mast until after the funeral.
 * January 20 – Jim Hogg becomes the first native Texan to be governor of that state.
 * January 27 – Mammoth Mine disaster
 * January 29 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii.
 * March 3
 * The International Copyright Act of 1891 is passed by the Fifty-first United States Congress.
 * Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, predecessor of Shoshone National Forest, in Wyoming is established as the first United States National Forest.
 * March 14 – In New Orleans, a lynch mob storms the Old Parish Prison and lynches 11 Italians who had been found not guilty of the murder of Police Chief David Hennessy.
 * March 30 – Shoshone National Forest is established in Wyoming, the first U.S. National Forest.
 * April 1 – The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago.
 * May 5 – The Music Hall in New York (later known as Carnegie Hall) has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.
 * May 20 – Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope is first displayed at Edison's Laboratory, for a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs.
 * June 1 – The Johnstown Inclined Plane opens in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
 * June 21 – First long-distance transmission of alternating current by the Ames power plant near Telluride, Colorado by Lucien and Paul Nunn.
 * September 23 – California Institute of Technology in California is founded.
 * October 1 – Stanford University in California opens its doors.
 * October 16 – White River National Forest is established in Colorado.
 * November 28 – The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is organized in St. Louis, Missouri.
 * December 17 – Drexel University is inaugurated as the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry in Philadelphia.

Undated

 * Seattle University is established as the Immaculate Conception school.
 * Marie Owens becomes (probably) the first female police officer in the U.S., with the Chicago Police Department.
 * Jesse W. Reno invents the first working escalator, installed as an attraction at the Old Iron Pier, Coney Island, New York City.

Ongoing

 * Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
 * Gay Nineties (1890–1899)
 * Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
 * Garza Revolution in Texas and Mexico (1891–1893)

January–June

 * January 1 – Charles Bickford, actor (died 1967)
 * January 2 – Charles P. Thompson, actor (died 1979)
 * January 7 – Zora Neale Hurston, Harlem Renaissance writer (died 1960)
 * January 25 – Wellman Braud, jazz bassist (died 1966)
 * January 28 – Bill Doak, baseball player (died 1954)
 * January 30 – Walter Beech, aviator and aircraft manufacturer (died 1950)
 * February 10 – Elliot Paul, writer (died 1958)
 * February 12 – Eugene Millikin, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1941 to 1957 (died 1958)
 * February 13 – Grant Wood, painter (died 1942)
 * February 15 – Henry J. Knauf, politician (died 1950)
 * March 10 – Sam Jaffe, actor (died 1984)
 * March 19 – Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States (died 1974)
 * March 26 – Will Wright, actor (died 1962)
 * April 13 – Nella Larsen, novelist (died 1964)
 * April 15 – Wallace Reid, actor (died 1923)
 * April 19 – W. Alton Jones, industrialist and philanthropist (died 1962)
 * April 26 – Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, mistress of Franklin D. Roosevelt (died 1948)
 * May 21 – John Peale Bishop, writer (died 1944)
 * May 22 – Eddie Edwards, jazz trombonist (died 1963)
 * May 24 – William F. Albright, archeologist and Biblical scholar (died 1971)
 * May 26 –
 * Maxwell Bodenheim, poet and novelist (murdered 1954)
 * Mamie Smith, African American blues singer (died 1946)
 * May 30 – Ben Bernie, bandleader (died 1943)
 * June 3 – Jim Tully, vagabond, pugilist and writer (died 1947)
 * June 8 – Audrey Munson, model and silent film actress (died 1996)
 * June 9 – Cole Porter, composer and songwriter (died 1964)
 * June 28
 * Esther Forbes, historical fiction writer (died 1967)
 * Carl Panzram, serial killer and rapist (executed 1930)
 * June 30 – Man Mountain Dean, wrestler (died 1953)

July–December

 * July 5 – John Howard Northrop, biochemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946 (suicide 1987)
 * July 10 – Edith Quimby, medical researcher and physicist (died 1982)
 * July 16 – Blossom Seeley, singer and vaudeville performer (died 1974)
 * July 18 – Billy Sullivan, actor (died 1946)
 * July 26 – William J. Connors, politician (died 1961)
 * August 1 – Edward Streeter, humorist (died 1976)
 * August 15 – Chief Yowlachie, Native American actor (died 1966)
 * August 29 – Joyce Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards (died 1982)
 * September 3 – Annie Elizabeth Delany, African American physician and author (died 1995)
 * September 28 – Myrtle Gonzalez, silent film actress (died 1918)
 * October 7 – Charles R. Chickering, illustrator (died 1970)
 * October 25 – Charles Coughlin, antisemitic radio host and Catholic priest (died 1979)
 * October 29 – Fanny Brice, actress, comedian and singer (died 1951)
 * November 2 – David Townsend, art director (died 1935)
 * November 7 – Miriam Cooper, silent film actress (died 1976)
 * November 10 – Carl Stalling, cartoon film composer (died 1972)
 * November 15 – Vincent Astor, philanthropist (died 1959)
 * November 20 – Leon Cadore, baseball pitcher (died 1958)
 * December 14
 * Katherine MacDonald, silent film actress (died 1956)
 * Lester Melrose, record producer of the Chicago blues genre (died 1968)
 * December 26 – Henry Miller, novelist (died 1980)

Deaths

 * January 5 – Emma Abbott, operatic soprano (born 1850)
 * January 17 – George Bancroft, historian (born 1800)
 * January 29 – William Windom, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1870 to 1881 and from 1881 to 1883 (born 1827)
 * February 14 – William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War general (born 1820)
 * February 21 – James Timberlake, law enforcement officer (born 1846)
 * February 28 – George Hearst, U.S. Senator from California from 1887 to 1891 (born 1820)
 * March 6
 * George M. Chilcott, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1882 to 1883 (born 1828)
 * Joshua Hill, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1871 to 1873 (born 1812)
 * March 21 – Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate Army general (born 1807)
 * April 2 – Albert Pike, Confederate military officer, attorney, writer and Freemason (born 1809)
 * April 7 – P. T. Barnum, showman, businessman, and politician (b. 1810)
 * April 14 – Annie Nowlin Savery, suffragist (born 1831 in the United Kingdom)
 * June 9 – Henry Edwards, entomologist and actor (born 1827 in the United Kingdom)
 * June 17 – Harrison Ludington, 13th Governor of Wisconsin from 1876 to 1878 (born 1812)
 * June 21 – Joseph E. McDonald, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1875 to 1881 (born 1819)
 * July 4 – Hannibal Hamlin, 15th vice president of the United States from 1861 to 1865 (born 1809)
 * August 5 – Thomas S. Bocock, U.S. Congressman, Speaker of the Confederate States House of Representatives (born 1815)
 * August 12 – James Russell Lowell, Romantic poet, critic, satirist, writer, diplomat and abolitionist (born 1819)
 * August 14
 * John Henry Hopkins Jr., clergyman and hymnist (born 1820)
 * Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the U.S. (born 1803)
 * August 27 – Samuel C. Pomeroy, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1861 to 1873 (born 1816)
 * September 10 – Charles B. Clark, politician and entrepreneur (born 1844)
 * September 28 – Herman Melville, novelist, short story writer and poet (born 1819)
 * October 16 – Sarah Winnemucca, Northern Paiute author, activist and educator (born 1844)
 * November 6 – J. Gregory Smith, Vermont governor (born 1818)
 * November 17 – George H. Cooper, admiral (born 1821)
 * December 7 – Mary Crane, activist; mother of writer Stephen Crane (born 1827)
 * December 12 – Julia A. Ames, reformer (born 1861)
 * December 20 – Preston B. Plumb, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1877 to 1891 (born 1837)
 * December 29 – Marion McKinley Bovard, academic administrator, 1st president of the University of Southern California (born 1847)