Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bingham, Caleb

(Encyclopedia)Bingham, Caleb bĭngˈəm [key], 1757–1817, American textbook writer, b. Salisbury, Conn. He taught until 1796, then became a bookseller and publisher in Boston. He wrote and published some of the e...

Hatfield

(Encyclopedia)Hatfield, town, Hertfordshire, SE England. Hatfield was designated one of the new towns in 1948 to alleviate overpopulation in London. The plans for thi...

Menzel, Donald Howard

(Encyclopedia)Menzel, Donald Howard, 1901–76, American astrophysicist, b. Florence, Colo. From 1926 to 1932 he was with the Lick Observatory in Calif. In 1932 he joined the faculty at Harvard, where he became pro...

realism, in philosophy

(Encyclopedia)realism, in philosophy. 1 In medieval philosophy realism represented a position taken on the problem of universals. There were two schools of realism. Extreme realism, represented by William of Champe...

chapter house

(Encyclopedia)chapter house, a building in which the chapter of the clergy meets. Its plan varies, the simplest being a rectangle. At Worcester, England, the Norman builders created a circular chapter house (c.1100...

Amesbury, town, England

(Encyclopedia)Amesbury āmzˈbərē [key], town, Wiltshire, S central England. Located on Salisbury plain, the town is among the oldest continuously settled locations in Great Britain. In 980 the widow of King Edga...

Borenius, Tancred

(Encyclopedia)Borenius, Tancred tängˈkrād bôrēˈnēəs [key], 1885–1948, art historian and teacher, b. Finland. He became professor of the history of art at University College, London, in 1922. In 1933 he be...

Devoy, John

(Encyclopedia)Devoy, John dĭvoiˈ [key], 1842–1928, Irish-American journalist and Irish revolutionary, b. Ireland. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (see Fenian movement) in 1861. For proselytizing with...

Dewey, John

(Encyclopedia)Dewey, John, 1859–1952, American philosopher and educator, b. Burlington, Vt., grad. Univ. of Vermont, 1879, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1884. He taught at the universities of Minnesota (1888–89), Michig...

Dickinson, John

(Encyclopedia)Dickinson, John, 1732–1808, American patriot and statesman, b. Talbot co., Md. After studying law in Philadelphia and in London at the Middle Temple, he developed a highly successful practice in Phi...

Browse by Subject