Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

McCulloch v. Maryland

(Encyclopedia)McCulloch v. Maryland, case decided in 1819 by the U.S. Supreme Court, dealing specifically with the constitutionality of a Congress-chartered corporation, and more generally with the dispersion of po...

bed and breakfast

(Encyclopedia)bed and breakfast (B&B or BnB), small business that offers guests rooms and breakfast, usually in a private home or apartment. In a B&B, service and meal preparation is typically provided by t...

Wirral

(Encyclopedia)Wirral, metropolitan borough (1991 est. pop. 322,100), NW England, on the peninsula between the Mersey and Dee estuaries, in the Greater Manchester metropolitan area. Sometimes referred to as “the d...

public school

(Encyclopedia)public school, in the United States, a tax-supported elementary or high school open to anyone. In England the term was originally applied to grammar schools endowed for the use of the lay public; howe...

Peel, Sir Robert

(Encyclopedia)Peel, Sir Robert, 1788–1850, British statesman. The son of a rich cotton manufacturer, whose baronetcy he inherited in 1830, Peel entered Parliament as a Tory in 1809. He served (1812–18) as chief...

absentee ownership

(Encyclopedia)absentee ownership, system under which a person (or a corporation) controls and derives income from land in a region where he does not reside. Abuses existed in absenteeism in pre-Revolutionary France...

Sloan, Alfred Pritchard, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Sloan, Alfred Pritchard, Jr., 1875–1966, American businessman and philanthropist, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1895. He began his career as a draftsman for the H...

Oberammergau

(Encyclopedia)Oberammergau ōˌbərämˈərgou [key], town (1994 pop. 5,343), Bavaria, S Germany, in the Bavarian Alps. It has been a noted center of woodcarving since the 12th cent. Oberammergau is famous for the ...

Anastasius I

(Encyclopedia)Anastasius I ănəstāˈshəs, –zhəs [key], c.430–518, Roman emperor of the East (491–518); successor of Zeno, whose widow he married. He broke the power that the Isaurians had enjoyed since Le...

Colquhoun, Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Colquhoun, Patrick kōho͞onˈ [key], 1745–1820, British economist and statistician, b. Scotland. Active in civic affairs in Glasgow (where he founded the chamber of commerce) and London, he became ...
 

Browse by Subject