Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

91 results found

Tarleton, Sir Banastre

(Encyclopedia)Tarleton, Sir Banastre băˈnəstər tärlˈtən [key], 1754–1833, British army officer in the American Revolution. He arrived (1775) in America with General Cornwallis and was a member of the patro...

prefect

(Encyclopedia)prefect or praefect both: prēˈfĕkt [key], in ancient Rome, various military and civil officers. Under the empire some prefects were very important. The Praetorian prefects (first appointed 2 b.c.) ...

Rhodes, James Ford

(Encyclopedia)Rhodes, James Ford rōdz [key], 1848–1927, American historian, b. Ohio City (now part of Cleveland). While studying in Europe he visited ironworks and steelworks in Germany and Great Britain, and up...

Hazlitt, William

(Encyclopedia)Hazlitt, William, 1778–1830, English essayist. The son of a reform-mindeed Unitarian minister, he abandoned the idea of entering the clergy and took up painting, philosophy, and later journalism. He...

Singer, Isaac Bashevis

(Encyclopedia)Singer, Isaac Bashevis bäshĕvˈĭs [key], 1904–91, American novelist and short-story writer in the Yiddish language, younger brother of I. J. Singer, b. Leoncin, Poland (then in Russia). The son o...

Kirby, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Kirby, Jack, 1917–94, American comic-book artist famous for the strongly drawn, brilliantly colored, and surprisingly human superheroes and villains he created or co-created, b. New York City as Jac...

Perth Amboy

(Encyclopedia)Perth Amboy ămˈboi [key], city (1990 pop. 41,962), Middlesex co., NE N.J., with a harbor on Arthur Kill at the mouth of the Raritan River, which is crossed there to Staten Island, N.Y., by the Outer...

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, American author and physician

(Encyclopedia)Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809–94, American author and physician, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1829; M.D., 1836); father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He began his medical career as a gen...

Goodyear, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Goodyear, Charles, 1800–1860, American inventor, b. New Haven, Conn., originator of vulcanized rubber. He failed in his earlier business ventures and was in jail for debt when he began his experimen...

Gage, Thomas, English general in North America

(Encyclopedia)Gage, Thomas, 1721–87, English general in North America. He came to America (1754) with Gen. Edward Braddock and took part in the ill-fated expedition against Fort Duquesne (1755). Later in the last...

Browse by Subject