Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Seton, Ernest Thompson

(Encyclopedia)Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860–1946, American writer and artist, b. England. His name was originally Ernest Seton Thompson. His stories and paintings of wildlife, especially Wild Animals I Have Known ...

Runge, Philipp Otto

(Encyclopedia)Runge, Philipp Otto fēˈlĭp ôtˈō ro͝ongˈə [key], 1777–1810, German painter. Immersed in the mysticism of the romantic movement in Germany, Runge became a central figure of romantic painting....

Pire, Georges Henri

(Encyclopedia)Pire, Georges Henri zhôrzh äNrēˈ pēr [key], 1910–69, Belgian priest. He entered a Dominican monastery at the age of 18 and was ordained in 1934. He taught moral philosophy and sociology and dur...

ball-and-socket joint

(Encyclopedia)ball-and-socket joint, in engineering, mechanical connection used between parts that must be allowed some relative angular motion in nearly all directions. As the name implies, the joint consists esse...

Polk, Leonidas Lafayette

(Encyclopedia)Polk, Leonidas Lafayette, 1837–92, American agrarian leader, b. Anson co., N.C. After studying agriculture at Davidson College, he managed a plantation in North Carolina, served with the Confederate...

Donatism

(Encyclopedia)Donatism dŏnˈətĭzəm [key], schismatic movement among Christians of N Africa (fl. 4th cent.), led by Donatus, bishop of Casae Nigrae (fl. 313), and the theologian Donatus the Great or Donatus Magn...

American Colonization Society

(Encyclopedia)American Colonization Society, organized Dec., 1816–Jan., 1817, at Washington, D.C., to transport free blacks from the United States and settle them in Africa. The freeing of many slaves, principall...

Nu, U

(Encyclopedia)Nu, U o͞o no͞o [key], 1907–95, Burmese political leader, prime minister of Burma (1948–56, 1957–58, 1960–62). A nationalist, he was expelled by the British authorities from the Univ. of Rang...

Old Catholics

(Encyclopedia)Old Catholics, Christian denomination established by German Catholics who separated themselves from the Roman Catholic Church when they rejected (1870) the decrees of the First Vatican Council, especi...

art nouveau

(Encyclopedia)art nouveau ärˌ no͞ovōˈ [key], decorative-art movement centered in Western Europe. It began in the 1880s as a reaction against the historical emphasis of mid-19th-century art, but did not survive...

Browse by Subject