Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Day, Benjamin Henry

(Encyclopedia)Day, Benjamin Henry, 1810–89, American journalist. He learned the printer's trade in the office of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican and opened a printing office in New York City. Lack of work duri...

Locofocos

(Encyclopedia)Locofocos lōˌkōfōˈkōz [key], name given in derision to the members of a faction that split off from the Democratic party in New York in 1835. Tension had been growing between radical Democrats, ...

Stevens

(Encyclopedia)Stevens, family of U.S. inventors. John Stevens, 1749–1838, b. New York City, was graduated from King's College (now Columbia Univ.) in 1768. He studied law (1768–71) and soon joined his father, a...

estuary

(Encyclopedia)estuary ĕsˈcho͝oĕrˌē [key], partially enclosed coastal body of water, having an open connection with the ocean, where freshwater from inland is mixed with saltwater from the sea. One type of est...

Niagara, river, United States and Canada

(Encyclopedia)Niagara nīăgˈrə [key], river, 34 mi (55 km) long, issuing from Lake Erie between Buffalo, N.Y., and Fort Erie, Ont., Canada. It flows north around Grand Island and over Niagara Falls to Lake Ontar...

Cohen, Morris Raphael

(Encyclopedia)Cohen, Morris Raphael, 1880–1947, American philosopher, b. Minsk, Russia, grad. College of the City of New York, 1900, Ph.D. Harvard, 1906. He emigrated to the United States in 1892. At first an ins...

Lewis, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Oscar, 1914–70, American anthropologist, b. New York City, grad. City College of New York (B.S.S., 1936) and Columbia (Ph.D., 1940). He was a professor of anthropology at Washington Univ. (St...

Holland Land Company

(Encyclopedia)Holland Land Company, Dutch enterprise active in the settlement of much of W New York and some of NW Pennsylvania. Organized by Dutch bankers in 1796, it secured lands in New York (known as the Hollan...

Ammann, Othmar Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Ammann, Othmar Hermann ôtˈmär, ŏˈmŏn [key], 1879–1965, American civil engineer, b. Switzerland, grad. Federal Polytechnic Institute, Zürich, 1902. He came to the United States in 1904 and was...

Hammer, Armand

(Encyclopedia)Hammer, Armand, 1898–1990, American business executive, b. New York City. He began in his father's pharmaceutical business and then expanded it into the Soviet Union. He returned (1930) to New York,...
 

Browse by Subject