Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hufstedler, Shirley Mount

(Encyclopedia)Hufstedler, Shirley Mount, 1925–2016, American jurist and U.S. secretary of education (1980–81), b. Denver, as Shirley Ann Mount, grad. Univ. of New Mexico (B.B.A. 1945) and Stanford Law School (L...

McFadden, Daniel Little

(Encyclopedia)McFadden, Daniel Little, 1937–, American economist, b. Raleigh, N.C., Ph.D. Univ. of Minnesota, 1962. McFadden has taught at the Univ. of California, Berkeley (1963–79, 1990–) and the Massachuse...

Atherton, Gertrude Franklin (Horn)

(Encyclopedia)Atherton, Gertrude Franklin (Horn) ăthˈərtən [key], 1857–1948, American writer, b. San Francisco. She wrote a series of historical novels about California, which include The Californians (1898),...

La Jolla

(Encyclopedia)La Jolla lə hoiˈyə [key], on the Pacific Ocean, S Calif., an uninc. district within the confines of San Diego; founded 1869. The beautiful ocean beaches, in particular La Jolla shores and Black's B...

Keith, William

(Encyclopedia)Keith, William, 1838–1911, American painter, b. Scotland. In 1851 he came to New York City, where he learned wood engraving and did illustrations for Harper's Weekly. He moved to San Francisco in 18...

lapis lazuli

(Encyclopedia)lapis lazuli lăpˈĭs lăzˈo͝olē [key], gem, deep blue, violet, or greenish blue in color and usually flecked with yellow iron pyrites. It is composed of lazurite, a complex sodium aluminum silica...

Bishop, John Michael

(Encyclopedia)Bishop, John Michael, 1936–, American biologist, b. York, Penn., M.D. Harvard, 1962. He worked (1964–68) as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., before joining the f...

Temin, Howard Martin

(Encyclopedia)Temin, Howard Martin, 1934–94, American virologist, b. Philadelphia, Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1959. A professor at the Univ. of Wisconsin in Madison, Temin began his cancer research...

bird-of-paradise flower

(Encyclopedia)bird-of-paradise flower, large tropical herb (Strelitzia reginae) of the family Musaceae (banana family), native to S Africa. Its large blue and orange blossom resembles an exotic bird; it is cultivat...

Whittier

(Encyclopedia)Whittier, city (1990 pop. 77,671), Los Angeles co., S Calif.; in an oil area; inc. 1898. Mainly residential, it has food processing and plants that manufacture transportation equipment; machinery; cla...
 

Browse by Subject