Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Casadesus, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Casadesus, Robert käsädāsüsˈ [key], 1899–1972, French pianist and composer, b. Paris. Casadesus was born into a family remarkable for its numerous celebrated musicians. After study at the Paris...

Landis, Kenesaw Mountain

(Encyclopedia)Landis, Kenesaw Mountain kĕnˈəsôˌ [key], 1866–1944, American jurist and commissioner of baseball (1921–44), b. Millville, Butler co., Ohio, grad. Union College of Law (now Northwestern Univ. ...

Hesdin, Jacquemart de

(Encyclopedia)Hesdin, Jacquemart de zhäkmärˈ də ādăNˈ [key], fl. c.1384–1411, Franco-Flemish manuscript illuminator. Jacquemart illustrated numerous books of hours, including a number of manuscripts for Je...

Hurok, Sol

(Encyclopedia)Hurok, Sol hyo͝orˈŏk, yo͝orˈ– [key], 1888–1974, American impresario, b. Russia. Emigrating to the United States in 1906, Hurok was a peddler, streetcar conductor, bottlewasher, and hardware s...

Cram, Donald James

(Encyclopedia)Cram, Donald James, 1919–2001, American chemist, b. Chester, Vt., Ph.D. Harvard, 1947. A professor at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles, Cram expanded on the work of Charles J. Pedersen by synt...

Dacko, David

(Encyclopedia)Dacko, David dävēdˈ däkōˈ [key], 1930–2003, president of the Central African Republic (1960–66, 1979–81). A leader in the independence movement in French Equatorial Africa, he became the f...

essence

(Encyclopedia)essence, in philosophy, the nature of a thing. Aristotle maintained that there is a distinction between the form of a thing—its intelligible, verbally formulable character—and the essence of a thi...

Smith College

(Encyclopedia)Smith College, at Northampton, Mass.; undergraduate for women, graduate coeducational; chartered 1871, opened 1875 through a bequest of Sophia Smith. The first president, Laurenus Clark Seelye, was in...

miniature painting

(Encyclopedia)miniature painting [Ital.,=artwork, especially manuscript initial letters, done with the red lead pigment minium; the word originally had no implication as to size]. In a general sense the term denote...

Alexander III, pope

(Encyclopedia)Alexander III, d. 1181, pope (1159–81), a Sienese named Rolandus [Bandinelli?], successor of Adrian IV. He was a canonist who had studied law under Gratian and had taught at Bologna. He came to Rome...

Browse by Subject