Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Intolerable Acts

(Encyclopedia)Intolerable Acts, name given by American patriots to five laws (including the Quebec Act) adopted by Parliament in 1774, which limited the political and geographical freedom of the colonists. Four of ...

Bond, William Cranch

(Encyclopedia)Bond, William Cranch, 1789–1859, American astronomer, b. Portland, Maine. He early aided his father in the trades of silversmith and clockmaker in Boston. He soon became an expert in the making of c...

Coligny, Gaspard de Châtillon, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Coligny, Gaspard de Châtillon, comte de gäspärˈ də shätēyôNˈ kôNt də kōlēnyēˈ [key], 1519–72, French Protestant leader. A nephew of Anne, duc de Montmorency, he came to the French cou...

Mystic, rivers, United States

(Encyclopedia)Mystic. 1 River, c.10 mi (16 km) long, rising in SE Conn. and flowing S past Old Mystic and Mystic villages to the Long Island Sound. Mystic Seaport, a maritime museum, is at its mouth. 2 River, c.7 m...

Hayes, Roland

(Encyclopedia)Hayes, Roland, 1887–1976, American tenor, b. Curryville, Ga. The son of a former slave, Hayes studied at Fisk Univ. and with private teachers in Boston and in Europe. As one of the foremost interpre...

Evans, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Evans, Charles, 1850–1935, American librarian and bibliographer, b. Boston. He organized many major American libraries including the Indianapolis public library, the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Balt...

Brush, George de Forest

(Encyclopedia)Brush, George de Forest, 1855–1941, American painter, b. Shelbyville, Tenn., studied in New York City at the National Academy of Design and with Gérôme in Paris. His early, scrupulously realistic ...

White, Elijah

(Encyclopedia)White, Elijah, 1806–79, American missionary in the Oregon country. A physician, he left Boston in 1836 to join the Methodist mission established by Jason Lee. After friction with his associates, he ...

Child, Francis James

(Encyclopedia)Child, Francis James, 1825–96, American scholar, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1846. At Harvard he was professor of rhetoric (1851–76) and English literature (1876–96). He greatly influenced modern ...

Bell, Alexander Melville

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Alexander Melville, 1819–1905, Scottish-American educator, b. Edinburgh. Bell worked out a physiological or visible alphabet, with symbols that were intended to represent every sound of the hu...

Browse by Subject