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Adams, John, 2d President of the United States

(Encyclopedia)Adams, John, 1735–1826, 2d President of the United States (1797–1801), b. Quincy (then in Braintree), Mass., grad. Harvard, 1755. John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams, founded one of the most di...

Tweed, William Marcy

(Encyclopedia)Tweed, William Marcy, 1823–78, American politician and Tammany leader, b. New York City. A bookkeeper, he became (1848) a volunteer fireman and as a result acquired influence in his ward. He was an ...

Peirce, Charles Sanders

(Encyclopedia)Peirce, Charles Sanders pûrs [key], 1839–1914, American philosopher and polymath, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1859; son of Benjamin Peirce. Except for occasional lectures he renounced the r...

Eaton, William

(Encyclopedia)Eaton, William, 1764–1811, U.S. army officer, celebrated for his exploit in the Tripolitan War, b. Woodstock, Conn. Captain Eaton was sent to Tunis as consul in 1798 and learned much about the Barba...

Frazer, Sir James George

(Encyclopedia)Frazer, Sir James George, 1854–1941, Scottish classicist and anthropologist, b. Glasgow, educated at the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge. He is known especially for his masterpiece, The Golden...

Bushnell, Horace

(Encyclopedia)Bushnell, Horace bo͝oshˈnəl [key], 1802–76, American Congregational minister, b. Bantam, Conn. Bushnell became (1833) pastor of the North Church, Hartford, Conn. He wrote Christian Nurture (1847)...

Edda

(Encyclopedia)Edda ĕdˈə [key], title applied to two distinct works in Old Icelandic. The Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda, is a collection (late 13th cent.) of 34 mythological and heroic lays, most of which were compo...

Cowper, William

(Encyclopedia)Cowper, William ko͞oˈpər, kouˈ– [key], 1731–1800, English poet. Physically and emotionally unfit for the professional life, he was admitted to the bar but never practiced. After a battle with ...

Niebuhr, Helmut Richard

(Encyclopedia)Niebuhr, Helmut Richard, 1894–1962, American theologian, b. Wright City, Mo., grad. Elmhurst College (Ill.), 1912, and Eden Theological Seminary, 1915, M.A. Washington Univ., 1917, B.D. Yale Divinit...

Maier, Vivian

(Encyclopedia)Maier, Vivian, 1926–2009, American photographer, b. Bronx, N.Y. She spent much of her childhood and early adulthood in France, where she began photographing street scenes; she moved in 1951 to New Y...