Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Star-Spangled Banner, The

(Encyclopedia)Star-Spangled Banner, The, American national anthem, beginning, “O say can you see by the dawn's early light.” The words were written by Francis Scott Key, a young Washington attorney who during t...

Steichen, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Steichen, Edward stīˈkən [key], 1879–1973, American photographer, b. Luxembourg, reared in Hancock, Mich. Steichen is credited with the transformation of photography into an art form. At 16, whil...

Greenwich Village

(Encyclopedia)Greenwich Village grĕnˈĭch [key], residential district of lower Manhattan, New York City, extending S from 14th St. to Houston St. and W from Washington Square to the Hudson River. North of the mai...

Thornton, William

(Encyclopedia)Thornton, William, 1759–1828, American architect, b. Tortola, British Virgin Islands, He studied (1781–84) medicine at Edinburgh but received his medical degree (1784) at the Univ. of Aberdeen. In...

Armistead, George

(Encyclopedia)Armistead, George ärˈmĭstĕd [key], 1780–1818, American artillery officer distinguished in the War of 1812, b. Virginia. He took part in the capture of Fort George on the Niagara frontier but is ...

Royal George

(Encyclopedia)Royal George, British naval vessel that sank on Aug. 29, 1782, while undergoing repairs at Spithead. Its commander, Admiral Richard Kempenfelt, and about 800 sailors and visitors were drowned. The inc...

Locke, Gary

(Encyclopedia)Locke, Gary, 1950–, American politician and government official, b. Seattle. The son and grandson of Chinese immigrants, he graduated from Yale (B.A., 1972) and Boston Univ. Law School (J.D., 1975)....

Drew, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Drew, Elizabeth, 1935–, American journalist, b. Cincinnati. A deeply insightful analyst of the national political scene, she was the Washington correspondent for two major U.S. magazines, the Atlant...

Graham, Katharine Meyer

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Katharine Meyer, 1917–2001, American publisher, b. New York City, grad. Univ. of Chicago (1938). She first worked as a copy girl at the Washington Post, which was owned by her father, Eugene...

Hudson, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Hudson, river, c.315 mi (510 km) long, rising in Lake Tear of the Clouds, on Mt. Marcy in the Adirondack Mts., NE N.Y., and flowing generally S to Upper New York Bay at New York City; the Mohawk River...
 

Browse by Subject