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Wiggin, Kate Douglas (Smith)

(Encyclopedia)Wiggin, Kate Douglas (Smith), 1856–1923, American author and educator, b. Philadelphia. In San Francisco she organized the first free kindergartens on the Pacific coast (1878) and with her sister es...

Wheaton, William Rufus

(Encyclopedia)Wheaton, William Rufus, 1814–88, American baseball pioneer, b. New York City. He practiced law in New York during the 1830s and 40s, and was a founding member and vice president of the Knickerbocker...

Alcatraz

(Encyclopedia)Alcatraz ălˈkətrăzˌ [key] [Sp. Álcatraces=pelicans], rocky island in San Francisco Bay, W Calif, about one mile (1.61 km) north of San Francisco. Alcatraz was first sighted by the Spanish in 177...

Muybridge, Eadweard

(Encyclopedia)Muybridge, Eadweard ĕdˈwərd mīˈbrĭj [key], 1830–1904, English-born photographer and student of animal locomotion. Muybridge changed his name from Edward James Muggeridge. A gifted and obsessed...

Oliveros, Pauline

(Encyclopedia)Oliveros, Pauline, 1932–2016, American composer and musician, b. Houston, Tex., studied Univ. of Houston, San Francisco State College (B.A., 1957). She began playing the accordion as a child, and it...

Burnham, Daniel Hudson

(Encyclopedia)Burnham, Daniel Hudson bûrˈnəm [key], 1846–1912, American architect and city planner b. Henderson, N.Y. He was trained in architects' offices in Chicago. In that city he established (1873) a part...

Belasco, David

(Encyclopedia)Belasco, David bəlăsˈkō [key], 1853–1931, American theatrical manager and producer, b. San Francisco. He was actively connected with the theater from his youth, and while associated with Dion Bo...

Hastings, Serranus Clinton

(Encyclopedia)Hastings, Serranus Clinton sĕrˈənəs [key], 1814–93, American judge, b. Jefferson co., N.Y. He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1836 and moved to Iowa soon afterward. He served in the first Iow...

González de Ávila, Gil

(Encyclopedia)González de Ávila, Gil hēl gōnthäˈlĕth dā äˈvēlä [key], d. 1543, Spanish conquistador. Despite the opposition of Pedro Arias de Ávila, he conquered Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua in ...

Gildersleeve, Virginia Crocheron

(Encyclopedia)Gildersleeve, Virginia Crocheron, 1877–1965, American educator, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., Barnard, 1899; Ph.D., 1908). She was professor of English at Barnard from 1900 to 1911, when s...