Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

136 results found

Tom Thumb

(Encyclopedia)Tom Thumb, 1838–83, American entertainer, whose original name was Charles Sherwood Stratton, b. Bridgeport, Conn. His career as General Tom Thumb began in 1842, when the showman P. T. Barnum gave hi...

Middleboro

(Encyclopedia)Middleboro, town (1990 pop. 17,867), Plymouth co., SE Mass.; inc. 1669. Cranberry-processing is a major industry in the town, and fire apparatus, chemicals, and shoes are manufactured. The town was de...

Fielding, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Fielding, Henry, 1707–54, English novelist and dramatist. Born of a distinguished family, he was educated at Eton and studied law at Leiden. Settling in London in 1729, he began writing comedies, fa...

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), first U.S. public railroad, chartered in 1827 by a group of Baltimore businessmen to regain trans-Allegheny traffic lost to the newly opened Erie Canal. Constr...

hand

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Bones of right wrist and hand, dorsal view hand, terminal part of the forelimb in primates. The human hand consists of the wrist, palm, four fingers, and thumb. In humans and other primates, t...

tom-tom

(Encyclopedia)tom-tom, name popularly applied to high-pitched hand drums, usually barrel-shaped and having either one or two drumheads of skin. They are tunable to specific pitches. Supposedly of Native American or...

Cooper, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Cooper, Peter, 1791–1883, American inventor, industrialist, and philanthropist, b. New York City. After achieving success in the glue business, Cooper, with two partners, erected (1829) the Canton I...

Tom

(Encyclopedia)Tom tôm [key], river, c.525 mi (840 km) long, rising in the Alatau range, S Siberian Russia. It flows N through the Kuznetsk Basin past Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo, and Tomsk into the Ob River. It is navi...

burlesque

(Encyclopedia)burlesque bûrlĕskˈ [key] [Ital.,=mockery], form of entertainment differing from comedy or ...

Hughes, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Hughes, Thomas, 1822–96, English author. A lawyer, Hughes eventually became a judge; he was also a Liberal member of Parliament and worked assiduously for social reforms. His novel of school life, T...
 

Browse by Subject