Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Black, Timuel Dixon, Jr.

(Encyclopedia) Black, Timuel Dixon, Jr., 1918-2021, American social activist and community organizer, b. Birmingham, Al., Roosevelt Univ. (B.A., 1952), Univ. of ...

Whitney Museum of American Art

(Encyclopedia)Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York City, founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney with a core group of 700 artworks, many from her own collection. The museum was an outgrowth of the Whi...

Lübeck

(Encyclopedia)Lübeck lüˈbĕk [key], city (1994 pop. 217,270), Schleswig-Holstein, central Germany, on the Trave River near its mouth on the Baltic Sea. It is a major port and a commercial and industrial center; ...

Aragón, house of

(Encyclopedia)Aragón, house of, family that ruled in Aragón, Catalonia, Majorca, Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, Athens, and other territories in the Middle Ages. It was descended from Ramiro I of Aragón (1035–63), ...

Sondheim, Stephen Joshua

(Encyclopedia)Sondheim, Stephen Joshua sôndˈhīm [key], 1930–2021, American composer and lyricist, b. New York City. ...

Reed, Ishmael Scott

(Encyclopedia) Reed, Ishmael Scott, 1938- , African-American novelist, poet, and social critic, b. Chattanooga, Tn. When he was a child, Reed’s family moved ...

Scilly Islands

(Encyclopedia)Scilly Islands sĭlˈē [key], officially Isles of Scilly, archipelago and unitary authority (2001 pop. 2,153), encompassing more than 150 isles and rocky islets, off Cornwall, SW England, 28 mi (45 k...

Barnburners

(Encyclopedia)Barnburners, radical element of the Democratic party in New York state from 1842 to 1848, opposed to the conservative Hunkers. The name derives from the fabled Dutchman who burned his barn to rid it o...

Leicester

(Encyclopedia)Leicester lĕsˈtər [key], city and unitary authority (1991 pop. 324,394), central England. The city is connected by canals with the Trent River and London, and it is also a railway center. Leicester...
 

Browse by Subject