Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Deyssel, Lodewijk van

(Encyclopedia)Deyssel, Lodewijk van lōˈdəvĭk vän dēˈsəl [key], pseud. of Karel Joan Lodewijk Alberdingk Thijm, 1864–1952, Dutch novelist, critic, and essayist. He was editor of De Nieuwe Gids [the new gui...

Dale, Sir Henry Hallett

(Encyclopedia)Dale, Sir Henry Hallett, 1875–1968, English scientist. For his study of acetylcholine as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses he shared with Otto Loewi the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physio...

Colgate, William

(Encyclopedia)Colgate, William kōlˈgāt [key], 1783–1857, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. England. Arriving (1795) as a youth in the United States, Colgate learned candlemaking in Baltimore and New...

Hallowell, Alfred Irving

(Encyclopedia)Hallowell, Alfred Irving hălˈəwĕlˌ [key], 1892–1974, American anthropologist, b. Philadelphia, grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania (B.S., 1914; A.M., 1920; Ph.D., 1924). He was a professor of anthropol...

Gluckman, Herman Max

(Encyclopedia)Gluckman, Herman Max glŭkˈmən [key], 1911–75, British anthropologist, b. Johannesburg, South Africa, grad. Univ. of Witwatersrand (B.A., 1930) and Oxford (Ph.D., 1936). From 1947 to 1971 he was p...

Forster, Johann Reinhold

(Encyclopedia)Forster, Johann Reinhold, 1729–98, German naturalist and teacher. His Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1772–73) on zoology, ornithology, and ichthyology established him as one of t...

Fry, Elizabeth (Gurney)

(Encyclopedia)Fry, Elizabeth (Gurney), 1780–1845, English prison reformer and philanthropist. Deeply religious, she was recognized as a minister by the Society of Friends (Quakers). From 1813 she worked untiringl...

Esch, John Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Esch, John Jacob ĕsh [key], 1861–1941, U.S. Congressman and federal administrator, b. Norwalk, Wis. A lawyer in La Crosse, he became a member of the House of Representatives in 1899 and served unti...

Ashmun, Jehudi

(Encyclopedia)Ashmun, Jehudi, 1794–1828, U.S. agent to Liberia, b. Champlain, N.Y. After entering the Congregationalist ministry and spending a few years in teaching and editorial work, he was sent by the America...

McGivney, Michael Joseph

(Encyclopedia)McGivney, Michael Joseph, 1852–1890, American Roman Catholic priest, founder of the Knights of Columbus, b. Waterbury, Conn. After studying at seminaries in Canada and the United States, he was orda...

Browse by Subject