Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Wright, Harry

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Harry (Wiliam Henry Wright), 1835–95, English-American baseball player and manager, b. Sheffield, England. His father, a professional cricket player, moved the family to New York to join the...

White, Richard Grant

(Encyclopedia)White, Richard Grant, 1821–85, American journalist, writer, and Shakespearean scholar, b. New York City. He had a varied career and was at different times music critic and coeditor (1851–59) of th...

Stengel, Casey

(Encyclopedia)Stengel, Casey (Charles Dillon Stengel), 1891–1975, American baseball player and manager, b. Kansas City, Mo. Stengel began playing professional baseball in 1910. From 1912 to 1925 he played with th...

Stewart, Alexander Turney

(Encyclopedia)Stewart, Alexander Turney, 1803–76, American merchant, b. Lisburn, Co. Antrim, Ireland. Arriving in New York c.1820, he started in business in 1823 by selling Irish laces. In 1846 he established a w...

Tracy, Benjamin Franklin

(Encyclopedia)Tracy, Benjamin Franklin, 1830–1915, American lawyer, cabinet member, and soldier, b. Owego, N.Y. He was admitted to the bar in 1851 and later served (1853–59) as district attorney of Tioga co., N...

Schneiderman, Rose

(Encyclopedia)Schneiderman, Rose shnīˈdərmən [key], 1884–1972, American labor leader, b. Poland. She emigrated to the United States in 1890. After working as a lining stitcher in a cap factory, she was instru...

Serkin, Rudolf

(Encyclopedia)Serkin, Rudolf, 1903–91, Austrian-American pianist, b. Bohemia. Serkin gave joint recitals with Adolf Busch (his father-in-law from 1935) and made his U.S. debut (1933) with the Busch chamber player...

Safire, William L.

(Encyclopedia)Safire, William L. săfˈīrˌ [key], 1929–2009, American journalist and speechwriter, b. New York City as William Safir. A former reporter and public-relations executive, he became a speechwriter (...

Gaynor, William Jay

(Encyclopedia)Gaynor, William Jay, 1849–1913, U.S. political leader, mayor of New York City, b. Oneida co., N.Y. He rose to prominence as a civic reformer in Brooklyn and, as justice of the New York supreme court...

Rockaway

(Encyclopedia)Rockaway, narrow peninsula, c.10 mi (16 km) long, SW Long Island, SE N.Y., in Queens borough of New York City. Separating Jamaica Bay from the Atlantic Ocean and isolated from the rest of New York Cit...

Browse by Subject