Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bowdoin, James

(Encyclopedia)Bowdoin, James bōˈdən [key], 1726–90, American political leader, b. Boston. He was elected to the Massachusetts General Court in 1753 and served until 1774. Illness prevented him (1774) from taki...

Bowie, James

(Encyclopedia)Bowie, James bo͞oˈē, bōˈē [key], c.1796–1836, American frontiersman, b. Logan co., Ky. With his brother, Rezin, he engaged in land speculation in Louisiana and Arkansas. In Texas from 1828, Bo...

Bradley, James

(Encyclopedia)Bradley, James, 1693–1762, English astronomer. His discovery of the aberration of light, announced in 1728, provided an important line of evidence for the motion of the earth around the sun. In 1742...

Bassett, James

(Encyclopedia)Bassett, James băsˈət [key], 1834–1906, American Presbyterian missionary, b. Canada. In 1872, under the auspices of the American Board, he founded the first American mission at Tehran, Persia (no...

Stuart, James

(Encyclopedia)Stuart, James, 1713–88, English architect, archaeologist, and painter. After working his way to Rome in 1742, Stuart accompanied Nicholas Revett on an archaeological expedition to Naples. Under the ...

Beard, James

(Encyclopedia)Beard, James, 1903–85, American cooking teacher and cookbook author, b. Portland, Oreg. His interest in food was encouraged by his mother, who had been a hotel proprietor. He was a syndicated column...

Tassie, James

(Encyclopedia)Tassie, James, 1735–99, Scottish gem engraver and modeler. At first a stonemason, he went to Dublin, where he assisted the gem engraver Dr. Henry Quin. With him Tassie invented an especially hard an...

Beattie, James

(Encyclopedia)Beattie, James, 1735–1803, Scottish poet and essayist. Educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he later became professor of moral philosophy there. His fame in his own lifetime rested on two works,...

Stanley, James

(Encyclopedia)Stanley, James: see Derby, James Stanley, 7th earl of. ...

Stephens, James

(Encyclopedia)Stephens, James, 1882–1950, Irish poet and fiction writer, b. Dublin. One of the leading figures of the Irish literary renaissance, Stephens is best known for his fanciful and highly colored prose w...