Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Pennell, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Pennell, Joseph pĕnˈəl [key], 1857–1926, American illustrator, etcher, lithographer, and author, b. Philadelphia, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Much of his time was spent ...

Essex, county, England

(Encyclopedia)Essex, county, 1,520 sq mi (3,938 sq km) SE England, on the Thames River and the North Sea, one of the “Home Counties” of London. Chelmsford is the ...

Gresham, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Gresham, Sir Thomas grĕshˈəm [key], 1519?–1579, English merchant and financier. As the royal financial agent in Antwerp after 1551 he proved himself very able, though his methods were frequently ...

Ter Borch, Gerard

(Encyclopedia)Ter Borch or Terborch, Gerard gāˈrärt tərbôrkhˈ [key], 1617–81, Dutch genre and portrait painter. He studied with his father and traveled throughout Europe, showing extraordinary precocity in ...

Thomson, James , 1834–82, Scottish poet and essayist

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, James, 1834–82, Scottish poet and essayist. He is remembered for his darkly pessimistic poem The City of Dreadful Night. He was raised in an orphan asylum and became (1851) an army teacher ...

Winton, Sir Nicholas George

(Encyclopedia)Winton, Sir Nicholas George, 1909–2015, British stockbroker who saved the lives of several hundred Czech children on the eve of World War II, b. London as Nicholas George Wertheim (later Wortham); h...

New Democratic party

(Encyclopedia)New Democratic party (NDP), Canadian political party, founded in 1961 when the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) reorganized itself and entered into close ties with Canadian labor unions, espe...

Jarrett, Keith

(Encyclopedia) Jarrett, Keith , 1945- , American jazz pianist and composer, b. Allentown, Pa. A child prodigy on the piano, Jarrett was exposed to contemporary jazz d...

Reform party, in the United States

(Encyclopedia)Reform party, in the United States, political party founded in 1995 by H. Ross Perot as an alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties. The Reform party's aims originally included mandating h...

playing cards

(Encyclopedia)playing cards, parts of a set or deck, used in playing various games of chance or skill. The origin of playing cards is unknown, and almost as many theories exist as there are historians of the subjec...
 

Browse by Subject