Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

157 results found

McLaughlin, Andrew Cunningham

(Encyclopedia)McLaughlin, Andrew Cunningham məgläkˈlĭn [key], 1861–1947, American educator and historian, b. Beardstown, Ill., grad. Univ. of Michigan (B.A., 1882; LL.B., 1885). He taught history at the Univ....

Willard, Emma

(Encyclopedia)Willard, Emma, 1787–1870, American educator, pioneer in woman's education, b. Emma Hart in Berlin, Conn. She attended and later taught in the local academy and in 1807 took charge of the Female Acad...

purslane

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Purslane, Portulaca oleraceae purslane, common name for some plants of the Portulaceae, a family of herbs and a few small shrubs, chiefly of the Americas. The portulacas or purslanes (genus Po...

frogmouth

(Encyclopedia)frogmouth, common name for small, owllike birds of the family Podargidae, ranging in size from 9 to 21 in. (22.5–52.5 cm). Their soft plumage is a mottled gray-brown in color with little distinction...

Romney, George

(Encyclopedia)Romney, George rŏmˈnē [key], 1734–1802, English portrait painter, b. Lancashire. Having had little early training, Romney went to London in 1762, where he rapidly became a popular and fashionable...

Booth

(Encyclopedia)Booth, family prominent in the Salvation Army, founded by William Booth. His wife, Catherine Mumford Booth, 1829–90, whom he married in 1855, played a leading part in the foundation and development ...

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

(Encyclopedia)Vietnam Veterans Memorial, war memorial in Washington, D.C., built 1982. Designed by the American sculptor and architect Maya Ying Lin, it is a sloping, V-shaped, 493-ft (150-m) wall of highly polishe...

Wilde, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Wilde, Oscar (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde), 1854–1900, Irish author and wit, b. Dublin. He is most famous for his sophisticated, brilliantly witty plays, which were the first since the come...

Kipling, Rudyard

(Encyclopedia)Kipling, Rudyard, 1865–1936, English author, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Educated in England, Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked as an editor on a Lahore paper. His early poems were col...

James V, king of Scotland

(Encyclopedia)James V, 1512–42, king of Scotland (1513–42), son and successor of James IV. His mother, Margaret Tudor, held the regency until her marriage in 1514 to Archibald Douglas, 6th earl of Angus, when s...
 

Browse by Subject