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jade

(Encyclopedia)jade, common name for either of two minerals used as gems. The rarer variety of jade is jadeite, a sodium aluminum silicate, NaAl(SiO3)2, usually white or green in color; the green variety is the more...

Astor, William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Astor, William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount, 1848–1919, American-British financier, b. New York City, educated in Germany and in Italy and at the Columbia law school; son of John Jacob Astor (1822–...

mountain beaver

(Encyclopedia)mountain beaver, stout, short-limbed North American rodent, Aplodontia rufa, not closely related to the true beaver. Also called sewellel beaver after the Chinook word for a robe made from its pelts, ...

Kelsey, Frances Oldham

(Encyclopedia)Kelsey, Frances Oldham, 1914–2015, Canadian-American pharmacologist, b. Cobble Hill, British Columbia, as Frances Kathleen Oldham, grad. McGill Univ. (B.Sc. 1934, M.Sc. 1935), Univ. of Chicago (Ph.D...

Thornton, William

(Encyclopedia)Thornton, William, 1759–1828, American architect, b. Tortola, British Virgin Islands, He studied (1781–84) medicine at Edinburgh but received his medical degree (1784) at the Univ. of Aberdeen. In...

De Lancey

(Encyclopedia)De Lancey də lănˈsē [key], family of political leaders, soldiers, and merchants prominent in colonial New York. Étienne De Lancey or Stephen De Lancey, 1663–1741, b. Caen, France, was among the...

Butler, Nicholas Murray

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Nicholas Murray, 1862–1947, American educator, president of Columbia Univ. (1902–45), b. Elizabeth, N.J., grad. Columbia (B.A., 1882; Ph.D., 1884). Holding a Columbia fellowship, he studie...

Fackenthal, Frank Diehl

(Encyclopedia)Fackenthal, Frank Diehl făkˈənthôl [key], 1883–1968, American educator, b. Hellertown, Pa., grad. Columbia, 1906. He served Columbia as chief clerk (1906–10), secretary (1910–37), and provos...

Holder, Eric Himpton, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Holder, Eric Himpton, Jr., 1951–, U.S. lawyer and government official, b. Queens, N.Y., grad. Columbia (B.A. 1973, J.D. 1976). He was a trial attorney with the U.S. Justice Dept. from 1976 to 1988, ...

Kirk, Grayson Louis

(Encyclopedia)Kirk, Grayson Louis, 1903–97, American educator, b. Jeffersonville, Ohio, grad. Miami Univ., 1924, Ph.D. Univ. of Wisconsin, 1930. He taught at Wisconsin from 1929, then became a professor of govern...