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Whistler, James Abbott McNeill

(Encyclopedia)Whistler, James Abbott McNeill, 1834–1903, American painter, etcher, wit, and eccentric, b. Lowell, Mass. Whistler was dismissed from West Point for insufficient knowledge of chemistry and from the ...

Black, Sir James Whyte

(Encyclopedia)Black, Sir James Whyte, 1924–2010, Scottish pharmacologist, M.B., Ch.B. Univ. of St. Andrews, 1946. A drug researcher, he held a series of posts with universities and drug companies before serving a...

Richardson, Henry Hobson

(Encyclopedia)Richardson, Henry Hobson, 1838–86, American architect, b. St. James parish, La., grad. Harvard, 1859, studied at the École des Beaux-Arts; great-grandson of Joseph Priestley. He was a major represe...

Stokes, Carl Burton

(Encyclopedia)Stokes, Carl Burton, 1927–96, American political leader, b. Cleveland. A 1956 graduate of the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law, Stokes began his political career as a Democratic member of the Ohio g...

Moundsville

(Encyclopedia)Moundsville, city (1990 pop. 10,753), seat of Marshall co., W.Va., in the Northern Panhandle, on the Ohio River; settled 1771, inc. 1865. Coal was once the chief industry, and some is still mined. Man...

Porteous, John

(Encyclopedia)Porteous, John pôrˈtēəs [key], d. 1736, British soldier. He was captain of the Edinburgh town guard at the execution (1736) of Andrew Wilson, a smuggler. When the crowd, which was sympathetic to W...

San Gabriel Mountains

(Encyclopedia)San Gabriel Mountains, S Calif., E and NE of Los Angeles, running c.50 mi (80 km) westward from Cajon Pass. Mt. San Antonio, also known as Mt. Baldy (10,080 ft/3,072 m), is the highest peak of the ran...

Houston, David Franklin

(Encyclopedia)Houston, David Franklin hyo͞oˈstən [key], 1866–1940, American cabinet officer and educator, b. Monroe, N.C., grad. South Carolina College, 1887, M.A. Harvard, 1892. He taught political science at...

Uncle Sam

(Encyclopedia)Uncle Sam, name used to designate the U.S. government. The origins of the term are unclear. The term was believed to have arisen in the War of 1812, when it seems to have been used at first derisively...

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