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Uncle Sam

(Encyclopedia)Uncle Sam, name used to designate the U.S. government. The origins of the term are unclear. The term was believed to have arisen in the War of 1812, when it seems to have been used at first derisively...

Richelieu

(Encyclopedia)Richelieu rĭshˈəlo͞o [key], river, c.75 mi (120 km) long, issuing from the north end of Lake Champlain, near the N.Y.–Que. border, and flowing N across S Que. to the St. Lawrence River at Sorel....

epistemology

(Encyclopedia)epistemology ĭpĭsˌtəmŏlˈəjē [key] [Gr.,=knowledge or science], the branch of philosophy that is directed toward theories of the sources, nature, and limits of knowledge. Since the 17th cent. e...

Kemper, Reuben

(Encyclopedia)Kemper, Reuben, d. 1827, American adventurer, b. Virginia. With his brothers Nathan and Samuel he settled c.1800 in Feliciana, just above Baton Rouge, in West Florida, then Spanish territory. Expelled...

Kennebec

(Encyclopedia)Kennebec kĕnˈəbĕk [key], river, 164 mi (264 km) long, rising in Moosehead Lake, NW Maine, and flowing S to the Atlantic; the Androscoggin River is its chief tributary. Samuel de Champlain explored...

Grasmere

(Encyclopedia)Grasmere, village, Cumbria, NW England, in the Lake District, near Lake Grasmere. Dove Cottage was the home of William Wordsworth from 1799 to 1808; the Wordsworth museum is also there, and the Jerwoo...

Hurt, John

(Encyclopedia)Hurt, John (Sir John Vincent Hurt), 1940–2017, English actor, b. Chesterfield, Derbyshire, grad. Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1962). Known for his sympathetic portrayal of unusual, often unappeali...

Ramathaim-zophim

(Encyclopedia)Ramathaim-zophim rămˌəthāˈĭm-zōˈfĭm [key], in the Bible, birthplace of Samuel, usually called Ramah and later Ramathaim. It has been variously identified with Ramah (4,) with Arimathaea, and ...

Perkins School for the Blind

(Encyclopedia)Perkins School for the Blind, at Watertown, Mass.; chartered 1829, opened 1832 in South Boston as the New England Asylum for the Blind, with Samuel G. Howe as its director; moved 1912. From 1877 to 19...

Brown, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Nicholas, 1769–1841, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. Providence, R.I., grad. Rhode Island College (renamed Brown Univ. in 1804 for him), 1786. He extended the internationally kno...