Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Buckland, William

(Encyclopedia)Buckland, William, 1784–1856, English geologist. He was dean of Westminster from 1845. First to note in England the action of glacial ice on rocks, he did much to bring physical and natural science ...

Todd, Mabel Loomis

(Encyclopedia)Todd, Mabel Loomis, 1858–1932, American author, b. Cambridge, Mass. A friend of Emily Dickinson, she edited and deciphered much of the Dickinson material in Poems (with T. W. Higginson, Ser. 1 and S...

Birkbeck, George

(Encyclopedia)Birkbeck, George, 1776–1841, English educator. He established (1800–1804) in Glasgow a popular course of lectures for workingmen, which led to the founding of the Glasgow Mechanics' Institution in...

Sedgwick, Adam

(Encyclopedia)Sedgwick, Adam, 1785–1873, English geologist. He was a professor at Cambridge from 1818. His most important work was a study, made with R. I. Murchison, of the rock formation of Devonshire, which th...

Renault, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Renault, Louis lwē rənōˈ [key], 1843–1918, French jurist, professor of international law at the Univ. of Paris. Renault was one of the founders of the scientific study of international law in Fr...

laetrile

(Encyclopedia)laetrile lāˈətrĭlˌ [key], name given to the chemical amygdalin, a substance derived from an extract of the kernels of many fruits, notably apricots, bitter almonds, and peaches. The idea that lae...

Armstrong, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Armstrong, Louis (Daniel Louis Armstrong), known as “Satchmo” and “Pops,” 1901–1971, American jazz trumpet virtuoso, singer, and bandleader, b. New Orleans. He learned to play the cornet in ...

Farmer, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Farmer, Paul (Paul Edward Farmer), 1959–2022; American infectious disease doctor and medical anthropologist, b. North Adams, Mass., M.D. and Ph.D. Har...

Powell, Dawn

(Encyclopedia)Powell, Dawn, 1896–1965, American novelist, b. Mt. Gilead, Ohio. She came to New York City in 1918 and settled several years later in Greenwich Village, where she spent most of the rest of her life ...

Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez

(Encyclopedia)Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez hōsāˈ gäspärˈ rōᵺrēˈgās fränˈsyä [key], 1766–1840, dictator of Paraguay and creator of its national independence, known as El Supremo. Incorruptible a...
 

Browse by Subject