Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

485 results found

Humber Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Humber Bridge, vehicular suspension bridge across the Humber estuary, E England. Completed in 1981, it links Kingston upon Hull (see Hull) with the estuary's southern shore. At 7,283 ft (2,220 m), wit...

Oxon Hill

(Encyclopedia)Oxon Hill, village (1990 pop. 35,794), Prince Georges co., central Md., a suburb S of Washington, D.C. Oxon Hill was dominated by large estates until the 1950s. National Harbor, a major mixed-use deve...

Addams, Jane

(Encyclopedia)Addams, Jane, 1860–1935, American social worker, b. Cedarville, Ill., grad. Rockford College, 1881. In 1889, with Ellen Gates Starr, she founded Hull House in Chicago, one of the first social settle...

Foot, Samuel Augustus

(Encyclopedia)Foot, Samuel Augustus, 1780–1846, American politician, b. Cheshire, Conn. He served as a Democratic Republican in the Connecticut legislature (1817–18, 1821–23, 1825–26) and in the U.S. House ...

Hamilton, Andrew, colonial American lawyer

(Encyclopedia)Hamilton, Andrew, 1676?–1741, colonial American lawyer, defender of John Peter Zenger, b. Scotland. He practiced law in Maryland and then Pennsylvania, where he became (1717) attorney general and he...

Humberside

(Encyclopedia)Humberside, former county, NE England. Created in the 1974 local government reorganization, the county was dissolved in 1996 and replaced by four unitary authorities: the East Riding of Yorkshire, Kin...

Feke, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Feke, Robert fēk [key], c.1705–c.1750, early American portrait painter, b. Oyster Bay, N.Y. He practiced in Newport, R.I., New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston. He probably studied in Europe for...

hydroplane

(Encyclopedia)hydroplane, small, high-powered racing boat designed to skim along the surface of the water. Its hull is so shaped that at high speeds the bow is tilted up out of the water, reducing the effect of fri...

Lasker, Albert Davis

(Encyclopedia)Lasker, Albert Davis, 1880–1952, American advertising executive, sometimes called the founder of modern advertising, b. Freiburg, Germany. He came to the United States as an infant and entered adver...

Browse by Subject