Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Conemaugh

(Encyclopedia)Conemaugh kŏnˈəmôˌ [key], river c.70 mi (110 km) long, rising in the Allegheny Mts. and flowing NW to the Allegheny River, SW Pa. Federal flood-control works on the river and its tributaries incl...

Hopkinson, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Hopkinson, Joseph, 1770–1842, American jurist, b. Philadelphia; son of Francis Hopkinson. A successful lawyer, he helped to defend (1804) Justice Samuel Chase in impeachment proceedings and was asso...

Internal Revenue Service

(Encyclopedia)Internal Revenue Service (IRS), division of the U.S. Treasury Dept. that is responsible for the assessment and collection of most federal taxes, except those relating to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, an...

Woodlawn

(Encyclopedia)Woodlawn, uninc. town (1990 pop. 32,907 including Woodmoor), Baltimore co., N Md., a residential suburb of Baltimore. Called Powhattan in 1856 after the company name for a local mill, the site was ren...

Land, Edwin Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Land, Edwin Herbert, 1909–91, American inventor and photographic pioneer. While at Harvard, Land became interested in the properties and manipulation of polarized light. He left Harvard and, in 1932...

MacNeice, Louis

(Encyclopedia)MacNeice, Louis məknēsˈ [key], 1907–63, Irish poet b. Belfast. Educated at Oxford, he became a classical scholar and teacher and later was a producer and traveled the world for the British Broadc...

entrepreneur

(Encyclopedia)entrepreneur änˌtrəprənûrˈ [key] [Fr.,=one who undertakes], person who assumes the organization, management, and risks of a business enterprise. It was first used as a technical economic term by...

Ellsberg, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Ellsberg, Daniel, 1931–2023, American political activist, b. Chicago, grad. Columbia Univ. (B.S., 1952, Ph.D., 1959). After serving in the U.S. Marine...

Conkling, Roscoe

(Encyclopedia)Conkling, Roscoe, 1829–88, American politician, b. Albany, N.Y. On his admission to the bar in 1850, he was immediately appointed district attorney of Albany. The son of Alfred Conkling, Congressman...

wetlands

(Encyclopedia)wetlands, low-lying ecosystem where the water table is always at or near the surface. It is divided into estuarine and freshwater systems, which may be further subdivided by soil type and plant life i...