Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Napoleon, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Napoleon, Louis, 1800–1881, African American abolitionist. He lived in a community of free blacks in Staten Island, N.Y., working as a porter and furniture polisher while secretly operating as an ...

Beer, George Louis

(Encyclopedia)Beer, George Louis, 1872–1920, American historian, b. Staten Island, N.Y. He was a tobacco importer for 10 years but also lectured on European history at Columbia from 1893 to 1897. After 1903 he de...

National Institutes of Health

(Encyclopedia)National Institutes of Health (NIH), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service, with headquarters in Bethesda, Md. It was established initially in 1887 as a laboratory in the U.S. Marine Hospital on St...

Ashokan Reservoir

(Encyclopedia)Ashokan Reservoir əshōˈkən [key], 13 sq mi (34 sq km), SE N.Y., completed 1912. It is supplied by the Esopus and Schoharie watersheds and provides part of New York City's water supply. Water is ca...

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, vehicular suspension bridge, New York City, across the Narrows at the entrance to New York harbor, linking the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island. Designed by O. H. Amma...

Long Island, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Long Island, battle of, Aug. 27, 1776, American defeat in the American Revolution. To protect New York City and the lower Hudson valley from the British forces massed on Staten Island, George Washingt...

Vries, David Pietersen de

(Encyclopedia)Vries, David Pietersen de də vrēs [key], b. c.1593, Dutch merchant captain and colonizer. An experienced mariner, Vries, in partnership with directors of the Dutch West India Company, founded (1631...

Saint Martin

(Encyclopedia)Saint Martin săN märtăNˈ [key], Du. Sint Maarten, island, 37 sq mi (96 sq km), West Indies, one of the Leeward Islands. Since its occupation in 1648 by the Dutch and the French, it has been divide...

Curaçao

(Encyclopedia)Curaçao kyo͝oˈrəsō, ko͞oräsouˈ [key], island (2015 est. pop. 158,000), 178 sq mi (461 sq km), an autonomous country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the Lesser Antilles off the co...
 

Browse by Subject