Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Gill, Sir David

(Encyclopedia)Gill, Sir David gĭl [key], 1843–1914, Scottish astronomer, educated at the Univ. of Aberdeen. He made observations of the transits of Venus and Mars and investigated the solar parallax. As astronom...

Henschel, Sir George

(Encyclopedia)Henschel, Sir George hĕnˈshəl [key], 1850–1934, German-English conductor, composer, and baritone. His first appearance (1877) in England was as a singer, and there he and his wife inaugurated (c....

Brangwyn, Sir Frank William

(Encyclopedia)Brangwyn, Sir Frank William brăngˈwĭn [key], 1867–1956, British painter, etcher, and designer, b. Belgium (to British parents). In his youth he worked in the studio of William Morris and later tr...

Bogarde, Sir Dirk

(Encyclopedia)Bogarde, Sir Dirk dûrk bōˈgärd [key], 1921–99, English film actor, b. Hampstead as Derek Niven Van den Bogaerde. In his early career Bogarde played romantic leads in such films as So Long at the...

Besant, Sir Walter

(Encyclopedia)Besant, Sir Walter bĭzăntˈ [key], 1836–1901, English novelist and humanitarian, grad. Christ's College, Cambridge, 1859. He taught at the Royal College of Mauritius from 1861 to 1867. After his r...

Tovey, Sir Donald Francis

(Encyclopedia)Tovey, Sir Donald Francis tōˈvē [key], 1875–1940, English pianist and musicologist, grad. Oxford, 1898. As a pianist he appeared in England and on the Continent after 1900 and in the United State...

Prince of Wales Island, United States

(Encyclopedia)Prince of Wales Island, 2,231 sq mi (5,778 sq km), off SE Alaska; largest island of the Alexander Archipelago. The island is heavily forested, but has little arable land, no source of freshwater, and ...

Downing Street

(Encyclopedia)Downing Street, Westminster, London, England. On the street are the British Foreign Office and, at No. 10, the residence of the first lord of the Treasury, who is usually (although not necessarily) th...

Youmans, Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Youmans, Vincent, 1898–1946, American composer, b. New York City. He first began composing while in the navy during World War I. His first musical, Two Little Girls in Blue, with lyrics by Ira Gersh...
 

Browse by Subject