Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Gad

(Encyclopedia)Gad, in the Bible, son of Jacob and Zilpah and eponymous founder of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Its allotment was half of Gilead; this was the land best suited to the pastoral life, which Gad, lik...

Fairbanks

(Encyclopedia)Fairbanks, city (2020 pop. 32,515), Fairbanks North Star Borough, E central Alaska, on the Chena River near its confluence with the Tanana; inc. 1903. F...

Nuristan

(Encyclopedia)Nuristan no͝orĭstănˈ [key] [Persian,=land of light or the enlightened], region on the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush, NE Afghanistan, bordered on the E by Pakistan. Formerly called Kafiristan [...

Jackson, Sheldon

(Encyclopedia)Jackson, Sheldon, 1834–1909, American missionary and educator, b. Montgomery co., N.Y., grad. Union College, 1855, and Princeton Theological Seminary, 1858. After a career as a Presbyterian missiona...

antipodes, in geography

(Encyclopedia)antipodes [Gr.,=having feet opposite], people or places diametrically opposite on the globe. Thus antipodes must be separated by half the circumference of the earth (180°), and one must be as far nor...

Chugach Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Chugach Mountains cho͞oˈgăch [key], one of the Pacific coastal ranges, S Alaska, extending from the St. Elias Mts., on the Alaska-Yukon border, NW to the Manuska River. Mt. Marcus Baker, 13,176 ft ...

Seward

(Encyclopedia)Seward, city (1990 pop. 2,699), Kenai Peninsula borough, S Alaska, on Kenai Peninsula, at the head of Resurrection Bay; inc. 1912. It was founded in 1902 as the ocean terminus of the Alaska RR (built ...

mir, former Russian peasant community

(Encyclopedia)mir mēr [key], former Russian peasant community. The mir, which antedated serfdom (16th cent.) in Russia, persisted in its primitive form until after the Russian Revolution of 1917. In a community of...

Burroughs, John

(Encyclopedia)Burroughs, John, 1837–1921, American naturalist and author, b. Roxbury, N.Y.; son of a farmer. He was a journalist, a treasury clerk in Washington, and a bank examiner, before settling in 1874 on a ...

Sierra Club

(Encyclopedia)Sierra Club, national organization in the United States dedicated to the preservation and expansion of the world's parks, wildlife, and wilderness areas. Founded (1892) in California by a group led by...
 

Browse by Subject