Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Flaxman, John

(Encyclopedia)Flaxman, John, 1755–1826, English sculptor and draftsman. At 20 he went to work for Josiah Wedgwood, designing the cameolike decorations for Wedgwood's pottery. Later, in Rome, he devoted himself to...

Fort Snelling

(Encyclopedia)Fort Snelling, on a bluff above the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, SE Minn.; est. 1820. It served as a regional protective barrier and as a nucleus for settlement. Minneapolis and S...

George of Trebizond

(Encyclopedia)George of Trebizond trĕbˈĭzŏnd [key], c.1396–1486, Greek scholar, b. Crete. Settling in Venice, he taught Greek, philosophy, and rhetoric there and in Vicenza before going to Rome in 1442. He be...

Gibson, Randall Lee

(Encyclopedia)Gibson, Randall Lee, 1832–92, Confederate general and U.S. legislator, b. Woodford co., Ky. Gibson served in most of the Western campaigns of the Civil War, first as an artillery officer and later a...

Toscanelli, Paolo dal Pozzo

(Encyclopedia)Toscanelli, Paolo dal Pozzo päˈōlō däl pôtˈtsō tōskänĕlˈlē [key], 1397–1482, Italian cosmographer and mathematician. A physician by training, he was also known as Paul the Physician. He...

Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni

(Encyclopedia)Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni pōl bĕlōnēˈ dü shāyüˈ [key], c.1831–1903, French-American explorer in Africa. Born probably in Paris, he spent his youth on the west coast of Africa, where his fath...

Acts of the Apostles

(Encyclopedia)Acts of the Apostles, book of the New Testament. It is the only 1st-century account of the expansion of Christianity in its earliest period. It was written in Greek anonymously as early as c.a.d. 65, ...

Child, Julia

(Encyclopedia)Child, Julia, 1912–2004, American cooking teacher, author, and television personality, b. Pasadena, Calif., as Julia Carolyn McWilliams. In the early 1940s both she and her husband-to-be, Paul Child...

poster

(Encyclopedia)poster, placard designed to be posted in some public place for purposes of commercial announcement or propaganda. Advertising makes wide use of posters, as do charitable and political organizations. I...

cardinal, in the Roman Catholic Church

(Encyclopedia)cardinal [Lat.,=attached to and thus “belonging to” the hinge], in the Roman Catholic Church, a member of the highest body of the church. The sacred college of cardinals of the Holy Roman Church i...
 

Browse by Subject