Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Howe, Julia Ward

(Encyclopedia)Howe, Julia Ward, 1819–1910, American author and social reformer, b. New York City. Although unhappily married, she assisted her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, in his philanthropic projects and in ed...

Hyades, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Hyades, in Greek mythology, nymphs; daughters of Atlas and Aethra. They cared for both Zeus and Dionysus as infants. In recognition of these services, they were placed among the stars of the constella...

Mnemosyne

(Encyclopedia)Mnemosyne nēmŏsˈĭnē, nēmŏzˈ– [key], in Greek mythology, the personification of memory. She was a Titan, daughter of Uranus and Gaea. The Muses were her daughters by Zeus. ...

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., 1950–, American scholar and critic, b. Keyser, W.Va., B.A. Yale, 1973, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1979, where he studied with Wole Soyinka. Gates is an expert on African-American lite...

Fairfax, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Fairfax, Edward, 1580?–1635, English translator. His excellent translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme liberta was published in 1600 under the title Godfrey of Buloigne. He also wrote a Discourse on Witc...

Clark, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Clark, Abraham, 1726–94, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), N.J. After holding several local offices, Clark bec...

Albert I, king of the Belgians

(Encyclopedia)Albert I, 1875–1934, king of the Belgians (1909–34), nephew and successor of Leopold II. He married (1900) Elizabeth, a Bavarian princess. In World War I his heroic resistance (1914) to the German...

Albert II, king of the Belgians

(Encyclopedia)Albert II, 1934–, king of the Belgians (1993–2013), the younger son of Leopold III. He married Donna Paola Ruffo de Calabria in 1959; they have three children. Albert became king when Baudouin, hi...

Foursquare Gospel, International Church of the

(Encyclopedia)Foursquare Gospel, International Church of the, fundamentalist Christian Church and evangelistic missionary body organized in California by Aimee Semple McPherson and Minnie Kennedy in 1927. It derive...

Interior, United States Department of the

(Encyclopedia)Interior, United States Department of the, federal executive department established in 1849, delegated custodian of U.S. natural resources, and whose head, the Secretary of the Interior, has cabinet r...

Browse by Subject