Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

491 results found

sociobiology

(Encyclopedia)sociobiology, controversial field that studies how natural selection, previously used only to explain the evolution of physical characteristics, shapes behavior in animals and humans. The theory has c...

Ward, John Quincy Adams

(Encyclopedia)Ward, John Quincy Adams, 1830–1910, American sculptor, b. Urbana, Ohio. He was trained under H. K. Brown, whom he assisted in the execution of the equestrian statue of George Washington in New York ...

Rymer, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Rymer, Thomas rīˈmər [key], 1643?–1713, English critic and historiographer. Educated at Cambridge and Gray's Inn, he was called to the bar in 1673 but turned his efforts instead to literature, es...

Meredith, Edwin Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Meredith, Edwin Thomas, 1876–1928, American publisher and U.S. secretary of agriculture (1920–21), b. Avoca, Iowa. After 1896 he owned and edited the Farmers' Tribune, founded (1902) Successful Fa...

Davidson, Jo

(Encyclopedia)Davidson, Jo, 1883–1952, American sculptor, b. New York City. He studied at the Art Students League and the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He is known especially for his portrait busts, which display...

Beer, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Beer, Thomas, 1889–1940, American author, b. Council Bluffs, Iowa, grad. Yale, 1911, and studied law at Columbia, 1911–13. He is best remembered for his biographies of Stephen Crane (1923) and Mar...

prehistory

(Encyclopedia)prehistory, period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some reco...

Huerta, Victoriano

(Encyclopedia)Huerta, Victoriano vēktōryäˈnō [key], 1854–1916, Mexican general and president (1913–14). He served under Porfirio Díaz. After the revolution of Francisco I. Madero (1911) he aided the new p...

Hale, George Ellery

(Encyclopedia)Hale, George Ellery, 1868–1938, American astronomer, b. Chicago, grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1890. He founded and directed three great observatories (Yerkes, Mt. Wilson, and Palomar...

McCarthy, Mary Therese

(Encyclopedia)McCarthy, Mary Therese, 1912–89, American writer, b. Seattle, grad. Vassar, 1933. As drama critic for the Partisan Review (1937–45), she gained a reputation for wit, intellect, and acerbity. Her n...